"Fixing magnetic shielding problems can be very expensive and result in work done around the MRI room," Turner says. "You don't usually shut down the magnet and pull it out and redo the room; you are going to figure out how to fix the problem outside of the MRI room on the walls or ceiling."

A third problem concerns ground isolation issues, which can occur due to moisture on the floor or a leaky room. These can be difficult to find and if they reside in your floor, you will have to shut the magnet down and move it around within the room while you fix other portions of the floor or pull it out entirely - both very costly and time-consuming fixes.


"When they start to see a change in the quality of the images, the technician should be able to tell right away if there is an RF leak or improper grounding," Campedelli says. "If they see anything, they call the equipment manufacturer and they will do their testing and the shielding manufacturer will get called in if it's not something correctable in imaging software."


Maintaining the Room

Currently, there are no requirements or guidelines by any agency to verify the integrity of the shielding on a regular basis, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have it checked and tested regularly.

"You should do it once a year but if you test every other year you should have a good idea of a room," Vojak says. "You should clean the door at least once a month. Nothing other than the finger stock really wears out."

Typically, an RF test is $2,500 plus travel expenses. The tester usually provides a multi-page report and the calibration records of the equipment.

A low-tech way for people to test RF shielding is to bring a radio or cell phone into the room and shut the door. If there's no reception, it could indicate proper shielding. But in reality, while this technique could expose poor shielding, it's far from enough to ensure a that there is perfect shielding.

"That's a quick way for a client to check their RF shielding, but that's not going to guarantee there's nothing penetrating," says Larry Knight, CEO of Sunrise Medical Technology, Inc. "If you truly want to test the shielding, you'll need to use a signal injector and a spectrum analyzer. A spectrum analyzer paired with a good omni directional antennae will detect any RF signal that gets through the room. Usually, you can isolate that signal to within about a foot of the leak and then go about fixing the problem from there."

Mike Profeta says his company has initiated a quality maintenance program for its shielding customers.

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