INVASIVE PRESSURE MONITORING OF PATIENTS DURING MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING

The purpose of this paper is to describe a system for monitoring patie nts who require general anaesthesia, profound sedation or intensive ca re while undergoing high field (greater-than-or-equal-to 1.5 T) magnet ic resonance (MR) imaging. Continuous evaluation of invasive and nonin vasive pressures, inspired and end-tidal respiratory gas concentration s, body temperature, heart rate, ECG and pulse oximetry were measured successfully during the MR examination. Diagnostic quality MR images w ere acquired on all 15 monitored patients. The calculated signal-to-no ise ratios were not different between the control and monitored patien ts. Commonly encountered technical problems and their solutions are de scribed. This study demonstrates that invasive monitoring can be safel y performed in critically ill patients who are undergoing high field M R examinations