More and more hospitals are introducing policies against common Lycra and spandex clothing in favor of traditional paper gowns or cotton T-shirts to prevent patients from being burned when MRI machines react with metal fibers in these garments, MarketWatch reports.
Although radiologists have long warned against wearing metallic clothing or jewelry during MRI, institutions such as Stony Brook University’s hospitals in New York, the University of California Los Angeles and Mount Sinai in New York are a small sample of the recent trend banning potentially dangerous clothing.
“I suspect many patients are unaware of the clothing risks,” said Bradley Delman, an associate professor of radiology at Mount Sinai in the story. “Even very comfortable clothing can present unnecessary risks. Safety must come first.”
According to the article, the first case of metallic clothing reacting to an MRI occurred in 2011, when an 11-year-old girl received a second-degree burn, which researchers determined came from an undershirt that contained silver microfibers not detected before the test. That case was published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology.
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Matt joined Chicago’s TriMed team in 2018 covering all areas of health imaging after two years reporting on the hospital field. He holds a bachelor’s in English from UIC, and enjoys a good cup of coffee and an interesting documentary.