Two posters presented at this weekend’s Heart Rhythm Society meeting in Chicago show that patients who have abandoned pacemaker or ICD leads may safely undergo MRI exams.

These posters follow the earlier MagnaSafe study which demonstrated the safety of MRI for patients with pacemakers and ICDs, but which excluded patients with abandoned leads from the findings.

The first, by researchers at Mayo Clinic, included 57 patients with 63 abandoned leads who underwent 70 MRI exams in a 1.5 Tesla machine.  The authors saw no clinical problems and no device malfunction following the scans.

The researchers also monitored blood troponin levels in 35 of the patients following the scans and did not see any elevation which could indicate distress to the heart from the scan.

The second poster, from the University of Pennsylvania, involved 24 patients with abandoned leads who underwent 34 MRI exams.  The results of this study also failed to demonstrate any clinical problems or patient discomfort resulting from the MRI scans.

With any luck, everyone will soon be able to obtain an MRI and will not be denied due to any kind of implantable cardiac device.

For an account of my personal experiences seeking MRI with an ICD, read this.