On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 07:30:54 -0500, Jeff Williams wrote:
Hey,

I am waiting for an MRI on my knee and while filling out the form it
asked about all things metal. Infact it's the first form (even at the
hostpital) where I have been asked if I have a Penis Implant (are they
metal?!) I find it strange that the staff at this hostpital thought
nothing of a gun?? I actually had a metalworking magazine with me in
the waiting area and they almost didn't give me the form as for my
injury they wouldn't usually 'risk' a metal worker with the MRI. I
guess enough people who work with metal every day (machinist and welders
they mentioned) have so many metal slivers the MRI tries to remove them
all at once.

Nah, it won't take out a metal sliver, they're too small to have
much pull on them even with that large of a magnet. You have _stronger_
magnets in your computer's hard drive, by the way.

What it'll do, is _maybe_ wiggle it around a bit in uncomfortable
ways; the long axis of the sliver wants to align with the
magnetic field at that location. Won't move it, though. From an
imaging perspective, it'd give a distored (spacial and contrast)
image in that location out to maybe an inch or two, depending on
how big it is and it's shape. RF Heating might also be a concern,
but less so than the discomfort and image problems.

Dave Hinz