If you wear a nicotine or any of the 60 kinds of drug patches sold in the U.S., you risk getting burned during an MRI according to the latest alert from the FDA’s new-drug office. Many of the patches contain tiny metal fragments which can cause the patch to overheat during the MRI scan and burn the skin underneath the patch. The FDA will soon require that all patch products carry the burn warning on the patch itself.
Patches containing medication that oozes into the skin over time have become more popular with patients. They are commonly used for delivering estrogen, pain medication, nicotine, Alzheimer and Parkinson drugs and anti-nausea medication for chemotherapy patients.
The patch alert advisory is the latest in a string of safety warnings involving MRIs due to the unpredictable effects of the increasingly powerful magnets used in the MRI devices. In one especially tragic case, a 6 year-old boy was killed at Westchester Medical Center when a metal oxygen tank flew into the MRI chamber attracted by the powerful magnets and struck him in the head.
It appears the FDA is finally getting it right in this situation in getting the appropriate warnings out to the public before there are a large number of injuries. The warning will hopefully prevent further burns to unsuspecting patients.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/health/policy/06mri.html
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
