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Safety Design Considerations for Magnetic Resonance Imaging | |||||||||||
Increase in use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners for medical diagnosis in hospitals, clinics, and freestanding facilities prompts consideration of special structural and safety basics for this unique equipment. In a Special Report for DiagnosticImaging.com, Robert Paul Junk, AIA, and Tobias Gilk, Junk Architects, Kansas City, Mo., outline spatial considerations for safe use of MRI scanners. Patients and personnel must be protected from the strong magnetic field that surrounds magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. The magnet that is the core of the MRI scanner can cause severe injury, massive property damage, and even death to persons with pacemakers, ferrous implants, or carrying loose objects containing iron. In planning an MR suite, the magnet becomes a central design consideration. The standard exclusion zone around the magnet includes all areas where the magnetic field is five gauss or more. This minimum exclusion zone extends in all directions around the magnet, including above and below, and may extend above ceilings and roof, below floors, and outside the building. Magnetic shielding of this zone includes use of tons of steel plating, which affect structural considerations beyond the tremendous weight of the magnet itself. Considerations related to the five-gauss exclusion zone may also include the design for and access to adjacent spaces. Obviously adjacencies to cardiac facilities require attention. Operational considerations are also in order. Operational
considerations Copyright 2003 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved. |
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