What would happen if a person with metal in their body gets a MRI?

Question

I dont have any metal in my body. But I want to know what would happen if somebody with metal in their body got one. Also, do they have a alternative way of doing it for people that do?

Answer 1

Anything made of ferrous metal (iron, nickel, steel) would move inside the body. Potentially it could cause serious damage.

Other metals (titanium, aluminium, etc.) will not move, but they could possibly interfere with the MRI scan. Generally, larger, flatter pieces of metal are more of a problem because they get eddy currents inside them which create their own magnetic fields and distort the magnetic field of the scanner. It is only really a problem if the metal is in or near the region being scanned. Eg. in a head scanner a plate in the skull would cause serious distortion, but a titanium artificial hip would not.

Implants with wires, such as nerve stimulators or pacemakers, are a real no-go because the wires can act as antennae and pick up radio frequency energy from the scanner.

Answer 2

If the metal is ferrous (most metals used for long term placement in the human body aren't), then yes, an MRI would rip it out.  I have a decent sized titanium plate in my shoulder, so I could have an MRI and be at no risk of having my arm ripped off.

Some non-ferrous metals are still magnetic, and so putting someone with magnetic metals into a Magnetic Resonance Imager would be a poor choice.  This requires the doctors to find other ways to view the parts in question.  Ultrasounds come to mind, but I'm sure there are other ways.

Answer 3

Some people think it will "rip" the metal out of your body.  My sister recently had spinal surgery where they put metal rods in her back, and the orthopedist said that it would just mess up the MRI, it would alter the image,  rendering the MRI useless.