Reconsidering safety and reducing barriers to MRI in patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices

This editorial refers to ‘Evidence to support magnetic resonance conditional labelling of all pacemakers and defibrillator leads in patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices’, by A.B. Bhuva et al., doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehab350. Cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) are an established treatment for a variety of cardiac arrhythmias and have proven to be an invaluable tool in the practice of cardiology. According to all recent estimates, from both the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and industry, the use of these devices is constantly increasing along with the ageing population, and today >1 million devices are estimated to be in use in European and non-European ESC countries. The clinical indications for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have expanded considerably in the last few years, particularly in oncological, neurological, and musculoskeletal conditions, and more recently in cardiovascular diseases. However, MRI is traditionally contraindicated in patients with non-MRI conditional CIEDs, because of the interference and potential...