by
Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor | January 18, 2012
The Accent MRI (Credit: St. Jude)
St. Jude Medical said Tuesday it released an "MRI-conditional" pacemaker in India that can let patients with the implants undergo some full-body MRI scans.
The Accent MRI pacemaker with Tendril MRI lead has been tested to be "conditionally safe" for use with full-body scans on a 1.5-Tesla MRI, St. Jude said on its website. The device received the CE mark, meaning it can be sold in Europe, in April.
According to a product brochure, the device allows a maximum whole body averaged specific absorption rate of 4 watts per kilogram. It also features a hand-held device, called the SJM MRI Activator, that lets doctors program pre-approved MRI settings.

Ad Statistics
Times Displayed: 44453
Times Visited: 1374 Keep biomedical devices ready to go, so care teams can be ready to care for patients. GE HealthCare’s ReadySee™ helps overcome frustrations due to lack of network and device visibility, manual troubleshooting, and downtime.
In general, patients with pacemakers are restricted from most MRI scans for fear of the MRI's powerful magnet interfering with the heart rhythm-correcting devices. But a new batch of pacemakers are making it possible for patients to get MRI scans under certain conditions.
Last February, the Food and Drug Administration
approved the first MRI-compatible pacemaker for U.S. markets, the Revo MRI SureScan, made by St. Jude rival Medtronic Inc.
St. Paul, Minn.-based St. Jude estimates about 75 percent of patients with pacemakers could benefit from an MRI scan at some point in their lives.