Metal Content/MRI Safety of FlexNT Tag?

[hamcastle]

Hi,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Your products are awesome!

Quick question before I pull the trigger and make a purchase, though. I wasn't sure about the difference in antenna composition between the Flex and the "vanilla" NT implant in a way that re-raised potential concerns about MRI safety between the two. I'd prefer to go with the Flex for the improved performance relative to the original, but I couldn't find anything specific to the effect of the MRI safety of the former. I understand that the amount of metal in both is tiny, but the ability to safely get medical scans and do my research is something I can't be too careful with. Have you, Amal, or any of the other members of the forum received scans with one of the Flex chips in place?

Regards from an aspirant cyborg!

[amal]

Hi hamcastle

To be fair, the flex line has not undergone any MRI testing or even so much as an anecdotal story about it. However, the amounts of magnetically saturatable materials (metals) in the design of the flexNT are actually less than those in the xNT. The reason being, the xNT has copper wire wound around a ferrous (iron) rod as an antenna. The flexNT does not require this rod because we do not need to try to boost or shape the magnetic lines of flux running through the antenna of the flexNT.

By all accounts, it should be safe... but again, it's not been tested yet.

[OsGu]

Hi ^^
I saw this, and became intrigued.
I've done a similar experiment with a classic pet-RFID chip embedded in a variety of embeddings (raw meat and other...foodstuffs) and ran them through a lab-MRI. What I found was (disappointingly enough) a significant lack of explosions or shreddings, leading me to hypothesize you should be fine as well.
No promises, but if it were up to me I'd feel safe going through anything not too strong ^^

@amal Just how much iron does the core contain?

Good luck and let me know if you hear anyone saying the opposite

EDIT: Of course, I can't say anything about the whole pain-factor about the scan, but I saw nothing in the way of dislocation of the chip ^^

[amal]

We actually have an MRI safety document we send to people having trouble with their healthcare providers not wanting to perform the MRI scan on someone with an x-series implant.

@OsGu - any chance of getting some tests done of some of our flex line products in your lab MRI? What T level is it?

[OsGu]

May I ask where you got the 7 T limit in your safety sheet from?

I rent it, so with sufficient time for booking it shouldn't be a problem getting an hour or two. It's a 1.5 T closed, clear and stable as they come ^^
I'm looking at ordering an xNT this fall; perhaps we could make it a flex as well and I'll do some testing for you ^.^

[amal]

It's not a 7T "limit", it's just the strength of the MRI that was used for testing. We couldn't get access to any 13T or crazy strong MRI machines. Basically we couldn't say if it was safe or not to undergo >7T so that's the "limit" as it were.

[OsGu]

Ah, fair enough. Regardless 7T is high enough when it comes to medical treatment and research; anything higher wouldn't be likely in a healthcare situation ^^