Feasibility, safety, and utility of brain MRI for patients with non-MRI-conditioned cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIEDs) remains controversial. While a growing number of studies have shown safe employment in select patients under strict protocols, there is an increasing clinical need for further off-label investigations. To assess the feasibility and utility of brain MRI in neurological and neurosurgical patients with non-MRI-conditioned CIEDs using off-label protocol. We retrospectively evaluated 126 patients with non-MRI-conditioned CIEDs referred to our hospital between 2014 to 2018 for MRI under an IRB-approved protocol. A total of 126 off-label brain MRI scans were performed. The mean age was 67.5 ± 13.0. Seventy percent of scans were performed on female patients. Indications for MRI are neurosurgical (45.2%), neurological (51.6%), and others (3.2%). MRI utilization for tumor cases was highest for tumor cases (68.3%), but employment was valuable for vascular (12.7%), deep brain stimulators (3.2%), and other cases (15.9%). In the tumor category, (37.2%) of the scans were performed for initial diagnosis and pre-surgical planning, (47.7%) for post-intervention evaluation/surveillance, (15.1%) for stereotactic radiosurgery treatment (CyberKnife). No clinical complications were encountered. No functional device complications of the CIED were identified during and after the MRI in 96.9% of the studies. A 49.6% of the off-label brain MRI scans performed led to a clinically significant decision and/or intervention for the patients. A 42.9% of obtained MRI studies did not change the plan of care. A 7.9% of post-scan decision-making data was not available. We demonstrate that off-label brain MRI scans performed on select patients under a strict protocol is feasible, safe, and relevant. Almost 50% of scans provided critical information resulting in clinical intervention of the patients.
Keywords: Cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIEDs); Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).