UK officials worry patients are getting 'too big' for standard MRI machines
In one of Western Europe’s most overweight areas, British officials are struggling to tackle a growing obesity epidemic that’s barring hundreds of patients from receiving MRI exams, the BBC reported this week.
Obese patients are getting too large to fit in standard MRI bores, the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board told BBC, and more than 200 exams have been canceled in the area since 2014 for that reason.
“It causes inconvenience to waiting lists—particularly if it’s not clear the patient will not fit in the machine until the day of the appointment itself,” Richard Evans, the chief executive of the Society of Radiographers, said in the article. “Then there is the additional problem that comes with rearranged appointments such as the added costs to the NHS when services are already under such pressure.”
Standard scanners have a 68-inch-wide tunnel. Some hospitals put a 25 stone—or 350 pound—weight limit on the machines.
A spokeswoman for the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said the board does its “very best to ensure that all radiology patients have equity of service,” but said patients who require a conventional MRI scan “should fall within certain parameters.”
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After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.