Magnetic resonance imaging seems safe in patients with intracoronary stents

We elucidated whether exposure to cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patients with implanted intracoronary stents is associated with increased risk of stent-thrombosis, stent-restenosis, or other cardiovascular complications. Forty-seven patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were studied. Twenty-three were included in a serial cardiac MRI study, using 1.5-T scanners with standard gradient systems. The remaining patients were control subjects who were matched for age and gender with the MRI group. All patient had intracoronary stents implanted in connection with primary angioplastic treatment (PTCA) of AMI (n = 21), secondary PTCA procedures due to recurrent angina (n = 22), or both (n = 4). In the MRI group (n = 23, aged 58 +/- 10 yr), MRI was carried out one to five times in each patient a median of 166 days (range, 1-501) after stent implantation. The control group comprised 24 patients, ages 59 +/- 11 yr. The incidences of stent-thrombosis, stent-restenosis, and other cardiovascular complications did not differ statistically significantly between the two groups. In the MRI group, stent-related thrombosis (n = 1) or restenosis (n = 7) was observed in eight cases a median of 102 days (range, 7-547) after MR examination and a median of 318 days (range, 138-713) after stent implantation, compared with nine cases in the control group (thrombosis, n = 1; restenosis, n = 8) observed a median of 147 days (range, 1-267) after stent implantation. No acute thromboembolic or other complication occurred in immediate connection with MRI. The follow-up time was 21.3 +/- 4.5 months. This small study shows no evidence of an MRI-related risk of stent-restenosis or other cardiovascular complications, not even if cardiac MRI is performed early after stent implantation.