BIOPAC defines "Radiotranslucent" products as products that have no metal at all in the applied part. These are best suited for MRI applications.

BIOPAC defines "MRI-compatible" products as products that have no ferrous metal in the applied part. They may include nonferrous metal, but cannot significantly be mechanically influenced by a magnetic field. These may be suitable for MRI applications.

MRI-compatible does not refer to the capability of an applied part to be used in an x-ray machine. Radio-opaque implies that the applied part is easily visible in an x-ray machine so it can be manipulated via the x-ray viewer. Radiotranslucent in this context implies that the applied part is only partially or not visible in the x-ray viewer.

Caution is required whenever employing electrode leads and electrodes in an MRI environment.

IMPORTANT! See Safety Guidelines for recording  biopotential measurements in the MRI environment.

 Under certain conditions, single fault and otherwise, low impedance conduction through the subject represents a potential hazard due to currents that may be induced in loops placed in the time-varying MRI field gradients and RF fields, and due to body movement in the static MRI field. Low impedance conduction can result in significant heating at the electrode/skin junction, because this point is often the part of the signal path with the highest impedance. Sufficient heating at the electrode/skin juction could result in burns.

For more information:

• Read the Associated Application Notes listed below.
• See the "Magnetic Resonance Imaging" section of a BIOPAC Hardware Guide (available at Support > Manuals, or under the software Help menu, or on the software CD).
• Read Methodological Issues in EEG-correlated Functional MRI Experiments (Lemieux L, Allen PJ, Krakow K, Symms MR, Fish DR; International Journal of Bioelectromagnetism 1999; 1: 87-95).