FDA to hold MRI safety workshop
September 21, 2011
by Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor
The Food and Drug Administration is hosting a two-day workshop on magnetic resonance imaging safety this October, the agency announced Tuesday.
The meeting comes shortly after the 10th anniversary of the tragic death of Michael Colombini. In summer 2001 while undergoing an MRI scan, the six-year-old was killed when an oxygen canister, turned into a projectile by the MRI magnet, struck him in the head, according to reports.
The meeting also follows the release of a new pacemaker, the Revo MRI SureScan , earlier this year, which the FDA has conditionally allowed to be used around MRIs.
At the conference, the FDA said the first day would be devoted mostly to general safety and ferromagnetic detectors, while the second would look at issues involved with scanning patients with the new, MRI-compatible implants.
The FDA said it hopes to work with stakeholders to come up with hazard-reduction strategies to minimize risks when using MRIs.
In a review of MRI safety, the ECRI Institute said that while rare, it discovered a number of instances where ferromagnetic objects were pulled into the MRI bore.
The meeting runs Oct. 25 to the 26, and will be held at an FDA campus in Silver Spring, Md. The agency is accepting requests for oral presentations at the meeting until Oct. 4, and comments related to the meeting until Nov. 22.
The meeting comes shortly after the 10th anniversary of the tragic death of Michael Colombini. In summer 2001 while undergoing an MRI scan, the six-year-old was killed when an oxygen canister, turned into a projectile by the MRI magnet, struck him in the head, according to reports.
The meeting also follows the release of a new pacemaker, the Revo MRI SureScan , earlier this year, which the FDA has conditionally allowed to be used around MRIs.
At the conference, the FDA said the first day would be devoted mostly to general safety and ferromagnetic detectors, while the second would look at issues involved with scanning patients with the new, MRI-compatible implants.
The FDA said it hopes to work with stakeholders to come up with hazard-reduction strategies to minimize risks when using MRIs.
In a review of MRI safety, the ECRI Institute said that while rare, it discovered a number of instances where ferromagnetic objects were pulled into the MRI bore.
The meeting runs Oct. 25 to the 26, and will be held at an FDA campus in Silver Spring, Md. The agency is accepting requests for oral presentations at the meeting until Oct. 4, and comments related to the meeting until Nov. 22.