MRI Safety: RF Burns – Causes and Prevention nursing essay

MRI Safety: RF Burns – Causes and Prevention

MRI Safety: RF Burns – Causes and Prevention Introduction Advances in the field of imaging technology have made magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), available to medical science. MRI is a powerful and versatile diagnostic tool, with the consequence of increasing popularity in its use.
Introduction

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Background Bio-effects of MRI refer to the biological effects that occur to the human body, as a result of the interaction between the magnetic resonance (MR) scanner and the human body. These bio-effects can be classified into three, namely, the static field effects, the time varying field or the gradient, and the radio-frequency (RF) effects.

Tissue heating can occur through excessive RF interaction in patients, leading to RF burns (Liney, 2010). This paper evaluates the causes for RF burns and the preventive measures that can be taken to reduce the incidence of RF burns.

Heat Stress in RF Technology in MRI According to Shellock 2000, p.30, “Radiofrequency (RF) energy is non-ionizing, electromagnetic radiation in the frequency range 0-3000 GHz.” Evidence from more than three decades of research has demonstrated that RF radiation exposure can have many physiological impacts in the human body.

These physiological effects are essentially caused by the RF-induced tissue heating in the human body. During MRI diagnostic examinations, a large portion of the RF energy employed in imaging or spectroscopy gets converted into thermal energy in the tissues of the individual under investigation, due to resistive losses. …………………………………..