Importance of bone-conducted sound transmission on patient hearing in the MR scanner.

Purpose: to evaluate the influence of bone-conduction in the MR environment compared to a standardized acoustic environment.

Materials And Methods: Acoustic noise is an unwanted side effect of MRI that is commonly tackled with passive hearing protection. In an MR scanner, however, with the patient completely surrounded by the MR sounds and in close contact with the vibrating MR table and gantry, bone-conduction may increase subjective sound levels, restricting the efficacy of passive protection that reduces air-conducted noise only.

Verbal communication in MR environments: effect of MR system acoustic noise on speech understanding.

Purpose: To assess the masking effect of magnetic resonance (MR)-related acoustic noise and the effect of passive hearing protection on speech understanding.

Materials And Methods: Acoustic recordings were made at 1.5 T at patient and operator (interventionalist in the MR suite) locations for relevant pulse sequences.

Interventional MR imaging at 1.5 T: quantification of sound exposure.

Sound pressure levels (SPLs) during interventional magnetic resonance (MR) imaging may create an occupational hazard for the interventional radiologist (ie, the potential risk of hearing impairment). Therefore, A-weighted and linear continuous-equivalent SPLs were measured at the entrance of a 1.5-T MR imager during cardiovascular and real-time pulse sequences.