MRI and Valve Replacement

[Bill Hall]

My doctor asked me to have an MRI done recently. Since I have have a human valve (homograft), I decided there was no worry. When I was waiting for my turn, I sat there reading the warnings. I remembered that they had trouble restarting my heart and put an external pacer (pacemaker?) on me. When they removed it a week later, they snipped the wires and left those wires inside of me. So, I informed the technician, who talked to the radiology manager. She showed me a book indicating which mechanical valves were safe with MRIs and which one were unsafe. Of course, this was not helpful. I decided that those wires were still attached directly to my heart. It is not clear to me if that is unsafe, but I decided that the magetism in the machine could induce electrical current to run through these wires and hence through my heart. So, I'm going to refuse the MRI, unless I find information to prove it is not harmful. If anyone has further information, please reply to this posting.
Thanks - Bill

 

[Christina]

Hi Bill,

It's been a while since I've 'seen' you post on this site. Glad to see that you're still around.
Sorry, but I don't have an answer for you. I know and have been told that I can't ever have a MRI because of my St. Jude's mechanical valve.
Hope someone will come along to give you the advise you need at this time.
Take care.

 

[barbwil]

Bill, I Googled "pacemaker leads MRI" and got thousands of sites. I couldn't copy and paste the first one for you (PDF) but it looks as though the consensus is that the MRI will heat the leads and I'm assuming that means whether they are connected to a pacer or not. See what you think.

 

[Susan BAV]

Hi Bill -

That topic came up fairly recently in another post. Maybe search MRI here and look for more recent hits. I'm positive I would not want an MRI if I thought wires were attached to the walls of my heart. An old man near where my mother lives was killed a few years ago by going into an MRI with a pacer. Someone posted a different experience recently though about just the wires. If you find the thread, maybe you could PM whomever it was (I'm thinking it might have been Lyn or Lynn maybe and I apologize if I'm remembering incorrectly) and ask them directly, if you don't get a sufficient answer here.

I'm going to have to check my operative notes about pacer wires because I recall reading there was trouble starting my heart back up after my AVR also. I don't think they left any wires in me though except for the sternum wires. Do you know, Bill, if that is a fairly common problem, trouble restarting the heart?

 

[Susan BAV]

I found the thread in Pre-Surgery, begun by Lynn entitled something like: Darnit crummy doctor's visit. Lyn, mom to Justin, posted a comment about the wires. Can you go back and read that thread and/or hopefully both Lynn and Lyn will see your question and post here.

 

[Lynlw]

Yes Susan, It was me, Justin had an MRI a few weeks ago w/ his old pacer (perm)wires in , I asked about them when the card mentioed having an MRI and he said it was OK, but I'm sure other docs have other thoughts about it. this was for a cardiac MRI, a couple years ago, after his pacer broke and was removed he needed an MRI on his arm, I called his other ped card and asked if it was ok and he didn't have any problems, The reason I checked and double checked w/ the adult CHD card was because this was a Cardiac MRI and he was ging to be in at least an hour, (ended up being 2 hours) and Dr. Webb, who is one of the leading ACHD docs said it was fine. But I have a feeling if you asked a bunch or cards you would get all different answers. Since Justin usually has problems w/ caths, I was relieved they said he would be fine w/ a MRI,
Hope this helps but probably confused you more, Lyn

 

[Lynlw]

I'm going to have to check my operative notes about pacer wires because I recall reading there was trouble starting my heart back up after my AVR also. I don't think they left any wires in me though except for the sternum wires. Do you know, Bill, if that is a fairly common problem, trouble restarting the heart?[/QUOTE]

Susan, alot of surgeons (well all of Justin's) Send their patients from the or w/ the temporary pacer wires, just incase. Usually they just pull them out about the same time they are pulling the chest tubes. Some docs say it feels like spagetti is coming out of your chest when they pull them, but Justin said it hurt a little but mainly felt weird when they pull them. every once in a while they don't pull out easy, so they clip them

 

[lynn]

While I don't know anything about the MRI and pacer wire, I just wanted to say it does feel like spaghetti when it comes out....extremely weird feeling . They got one of mine out but the other was stuck because it was in 10 days, so he just snipped it off!

 

[Karlynn]

They pulled my pacer wires out. I could feel them come off the heart. Strange little tugging feeling and then a quick release. I remember being surprised at how much wire they pulled out. Has anyone else had them just snipped off?

Bill, I hope the reason for your MRI isn't too concerning. Best wishes.

 

[Bill Hall]

Thanks for all the information. It is true that I don't visit our site very often, but it is great to hear from old friends and newbies.

Barb - Thanks for pointing out that heat is produced on those wires.

Susan - I used the "search" and looked through a few of the threads, including the Damit Crummy doctor's visit. A big notice was that there are plenty of errors/accidents happening.

Lyn - It is very meaningful that Justin had his MRI approved with the pacer wires attached. That definitely affedts my decision.

Lyn - I thought they had problems restarting my heart because of the long surgery - 11 hours with 4 1/2 on the heart lung machine. I believe there is a correlation.

Karlynn - The MRI was for a problem I had speaking a few months back. It only lasted a sentence (happened twice), but worth reporting and checking. He said it was probably a TIA. I suggested that maybe my heart went afib (I was afib for a month following my surgery). We did a EKG, which showed my heart in normal rhythm.

 

[Lynlw]

Since we are talking about MRIs, Thank God we have insurance, and made sure to precertify before Justin's MRI, because we just got the bill and it was 11,000 Which kind of makes me mad, since obviously for a lot of people w/out insurance they probably never could afford to have one done. I was expecting a few thousand dollars since I knew they were "expensive" but not the price of a new small car or even mortgage for a year,

 

[SumoRunner]

I used to work in the GE R&D center in Niskayuna NY where all the MRI systems were developed and tested. I worked on some of the software used to design them. The Lab building where the test machines were located was constructed without metal. No nails, no screws, all wooden pegs holding everything together and an absolute minimum of wires which were well shielded. If you walked into the lab with keys in your pocket, you could feel the magnet trying to pull them out and holding a wire in your hand when you were near the magnet you could feel the heat.

After I got the valve replacement I never entered that building again. That is not to say it would be harmful just walking by. You had to get pretty close to the magnets to enter the high energy levels. But I wasn't taking any chances.

 

[Marty]

Epicardial pacing wires and MRI

Epicardial pacing wires and MRI

Epicardial pacing wires must be pulled out before MRI. At my imaging center we will not do MRI with wires in place.If wires are still attached to the epicardium there can be deleterious effects to the heart. Also the wires can heat up and result in thermal injuries.

 

[Susan BAV]

Hi Marty -

I'm glad you posted that information; thank you. "Deleterius." I've never come across that word before and had to look it up. That all certainly makes sense! I hope everyone here sees your post.