hi my name is Julie and I'm an MRI tech here at Holy Cross Germantown hospital I'm going to talk to you about MRI safety what's so important about MRI and why educating people about MRI safety the MRI room has the potential to be the most dangerous area of the hospital when the guidelines are not being followed well what let me explain a little bit about MRI MRI stands for magnetic resonance imaging under the cover of the magnet our coils of wire in which electricity passes that create the magnetic field these coils are cooled using liquid helium a cryogen gas to eliminate electrical resistance so the magnetic field is on all day every day even when not in use in case of an emergency we are able to turn off the magnet however it is not as simple as just turning it back on hitting the quench button located in the magnet room will cause a collapse in the magnetic field within seconds an emergency and MRI would mean that someone is pinned against the MIT machine or impaled by a ferromagnetic object accidentally taken in the room and there is no other way to get it out unless we shut off the magnetic field the button should only be used under dire circumstances as it is very costly to ramp the magnet back up as well as a delay in patient care when the magnet is out of service when the system is quenched all of the gas is released at once outside the building using vent pipes if the pipes fail frigid helium can discharge into the MRI room it is approximately negative 450 degrees Fahrenheit and can cause severe cold burns in addition to the possibility of burns the pressure in the room rapidly increases and the oxygen will be depleted as the gas expands the oxygen levels in this room were checked on a regular basis to ensure a safe environment and where I uses a very strong magnet along with radio waves and a computer to generate very detailed images of the inside of your body when a patient is placed inside the magnetic field the hydrogen molecules in the body line up like a compass radio waves targeted as specific area of the body then convert signals release from the hydrogen molecules into 3-dimensional images for the doctors to diagnose so how strong is the magnet well the Earth's magnetic field is point zero zero zero zero five Tesla the most common magnet strength used today is 1.5 tesla approximately 30 thousand times stronger than the Earth's gravity because of the extremely strong magnetic fields used in MRI there are serious safety precautions that must be followed at all times any items containing ferromagnetic food materials like iron nickel and cobalt must never be taken near the MRI room especially inside the scan room every single person who enters this room including staff family members doctors and patients are thoroughly screened persons with a pacemaker brain aneurysm clips and other implanted devices are not permitted to have an MRI it is the MRI technologist responsibility to screen patients and do research on any surgeries or devices they have to determine whether or not it is safe for them to have the scan for example if a patient has a brain aneurysm clip it is very possible the clip could torque in a strong magnetic field causing rupture of the vessel and bleeding internally possibly causing death the battery and the pacemaker will stop while in the magnetic field there is also the possibility that the wires could heat up and burn the surrounding tissue in people who have a history of welding even when they always wore goggles there is a possibility of small metal splinters in the eye we must perform an x-ray to clear the patient of metal in the eyes if not the tiny metal piece could move in the eye and potentially cause blindness this is how important it is to screen every single person who goes into this room no imaging test is worth seriously harming or even causing death to someone there is there is always alternative methods to get a diagnosis the magnet is unforgiving and does not allow for mistakes even small objects can turn into dangerous projectiles with extreme speed and power in the MRI room a paperclip was clocked flying 40 miles per hour in a 1.5 Tesla magnet it's basically physics the larger and heavier an object is the faster it will fly into the machine here I will demonstrate just how strong the magnet is my coworker took this foam stress ball cut a hole in it and put several magnetic washers in there and taped it back up I like using this to demonstrate because it's very soft it's not going to hurt the magnet or hurt any person if it hits them and it's very easy to pull off because of how light it is so we're going to put the ball with the magnets in it next to a regular stress ball with no magnets in it and we're going to send it in to the magnet so you can see how strong it the ball flies into the magnet swinging around a bit as it tries to align perfectly with the magnetic field this is easy to pull off because it is so light however if an oxygen tank or any other heavy object were accidentally taken in the room it would stick to the Machine and even ten people could not pull it off in that case you would have to quench the magnet everything in this room is non-ferrous we have a special wheelchair IV pole fire extinguisher step stool monitor even our engineer has special tools and we clean our own room with special housekeeping equipment to prevent accidents for every person who comes in here they must remove belts hair pins bobby pins wallets your credit card will be the magnetic strip will be wiped out watches phones pocket knives etc there is an MRI safe fire extinguisher in the MRI control room that is clearly marked and the regular fire extinguisher right outside the room is marked not for MRI it is very important for in addition to everyone working in the hospital that the fire department EMS workers and police officers are educated on MRI safety and never bring any emergency response equipment into the MRI room we've had situations here where I've scanned inmates and we've had to use very strong plastic restraints as opposed to handcuffs when they have an MRI if there is any emergency in the MRI scan room possible personnel must remember they cannot just run into this room like any other room in the hospital they must either have the patient removed by someone who is already screened or have the MRI tech remove them if the patient codes on the MRI table it is the MRI technologist responsibility to get the patient out of the room as fast and as safely as possible because the code cart cannot go into the MRI room when utilized safely and properly MRI is a very important imaging technique used to diagnose a wide variety of diseases without using any ionizing radiation education is the most important tool in MRI safety thank you for listening