PATIENT SCREENING PRIOR TO MR-IMAGING - A PRACTICAL APPROACH SYNTHESIZED FROM PROTOCOLS AT 15 US MEDICAL-CENTERS

The article by Boutin et al. [1] in this issue of the AJR documents a surprisingly great variation in the MR screening procedures used at di fferent academic centers throughout the United States, Although consid erable literature now exists concerning the MR imaging of patients wit h ferromagnetic implants, devices, and foreign bodies [2-4], no unifor m screening protocol to identify such patients has yet been adopted. T he Safety Committee of the Society for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (SMR I) has recommended that ''each imaging site should develop a standardi zed policy for screening patients with suspected metallic foreign bodi es'' [5]. To date, however, the SMRI has neither proposed nor endorsed a specific screening protocol for general use.