Concerns over MRI safety dominated headlines in 2019, at least according to the articles that were most viewed by members of AuntMinnie.com for the year. Topping the list were two stories about a recent accident at an MRI suite in Sweden, while other MRI safety-related articles also scored highly.
The radiology community has been closely following the incident in Sweden, which came to light in October when officials at Sunderby Hospital in Luleå confirmed that a hospital staff member and two security guards were injured in an accident at a mobile MRI coach outside the hospital. A follow-up investigation revealed that the hospital staffer was wearing some kind of weighted vest and was sucked toward the scanner by its magnetic pull. Fortunately, no one was killed in the incident.
Meanwhile, fallout continues from a 2018 MRI accident in India that tragically did end in a fatality. A man accompanying his mother-in-law into an MRI suite was killed when he was sucked into the magnet bore while carrying an oxygen tank. That case continues to work through the court system in India.
Outside of MRI, our readers in 2019 expressed interest in our coverage of the potential health risks of radiation exposure during diagnostic imaging scans, as well as the outcome of a legal investigation in California called Operation Backlash that ended in prison terms for a radiologist and several of his office staff.
Rounding out the top 10 were articles on gadolinium retention from MRI contrast, emergency physicians who got subpoenas for ordering the wrong scans, how radiologists can spot lung injury from vaping, and the impact of cannabis on the brain as indicated by MRI scans.
Below is the full top 10 list of articles on AuntMinnie.com for 2019, as measured by member traffic. We hope you enjoyed reading these stories as much as we enjoyed bringing them to you.
Top 10 stories for 2019
- Details emerge on MRI accident in Sweden, October 31, 2019
- New details emerge of 2nd MRI accident in Sweden, November 7, 2019
- Deadly MRI accident heads to court in India, August 30, 2019
- New study links medical imaging radiation to cancer risk, September 5, 2019
- Office manager in Calif. referral scam gets 5 years, June 20, 2019
- Hospital staff injured in MRI accident in Sweden, October 24, 2019
- MS patients show signs of gadolinium retention on MRI, September 10, 2019
- How to spot vaping-associated lung injury on imaging exams, October 9, 2019
- Report: ER doctors get subpoenas for ordering wrong scans, February 1, 2019
- MRI shows brain changes from cannabis use, May 20, 2019
