MRI Safety Guidelines

The VBIC nodes with 3 Tesla human MRI facilities have come together to create safety guidelines for research only 3T MRI facilities. The guidelines have been developed with input from the safety procedures implemented at each node, as well as publicly available information from the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists and the American College of Radiology.

MRI Screening Form

The VBIC nodes with 3T MRI scanners have come together to create a guideline for the creation of an MRI patient/research participant screening form. It is based on the screening forms used at each of the Nodes and is included within the VBIC MRI safety guidelines (Section 3).

Incidental Findings

The purpose of this document is to discuss the ways incidental findings can be handled and their pros and cons. This discussion is based on a review of relevant node documents and input from Node Directors. The outcome of this document is to guide researchers and radiologists in the management of incidental findings in a range of studies (but primarily brain-based MRI scans). An incidental finding is an abnormality discovered unexpectedly in research subject during medical research. A clinically significant incidental finding is one that indicates a subject’s present or future state of health is likely to be affected by the finding.

MRI Quality Control

The VBIC has produced a discussion paper on QC/QA for MRI data along with details for its proper design and implementation. The document contains general guidelines to develop a QC program, possible approaches and an addendum that outlines commonly used imaging markers.