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Retained pacing wire

Case contributed by Ian Bickle
Diagnosis not applicable

Presentation

For MRI brain. Prior cardiac surgery. Safe?

Patient Data

Age: 55 years
Gender: Male
x-ray

CABG.

Linear metallic density projects over the left ventricle.

Lungs clear.

Annotated image

The retained pacing wire lies inside the red circle.

Case Discussion

Very difficult to identify retained piece of pacing wire from the time of the CABG.

This is important to identify given the risks of entering the MRI magnet.

Inverting films if often very helpful in identifying subtle metallic densities on plain radiograph.

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