Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has unparalleled soft-tissue imaging capabilities. The presence of devices such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), however, was historically considered a contraindication to MR imaging. We summarize the potential hazards of the device–MR environment interaction, and present updated information regarding in vitro and in vivo experiments suggesting that certain pacemaker and ICD systems may indeed be MR-safe. Recent reports on several hundred patients with implantable pacemakers and ICDs who underwent MR scan safely indicate that, under certain conditions, individuals with these implanted systems may benefit from MR imaging. We believe that, on a case-by-case basis, the diagnostic benefit from MR imaging outweighs the presumed risks for some pacemaker and ICD patients. Thus for some patients, the risks presented by MR imaging under specific, characterized scanning and monitoring conditions may be acceptable given the diagnostic benefit of this powerful imaging modality. This may have major clinical implications on current imaging practice. A strategy for the performance of MR imaging in these individuals is proposed.

The Official Journal of EuroPCR and the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI)

Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781–1826) was a French physician who, in 1816, invented the stethoscope. Using this new instrument, he investigated the sounds made by the heart and lungs and determined that his diagnoses were supported by the observations made during autopsies. Laënnec later published the first seminal work on the use of listening to body sounds, De L’auscultation Mediate (On Mediate Auscultation). Laënnec is considered the father of clinical auscultation and wrote the first descriptions of bronchiectasis and cirrhosis and also classified pulmonary conditions such as pneumonia, bronchiectasis, pleurisy, emphysema, pneumothorax, phthisis and other lung diseases from the sounds he heard with his invention. Laënnec perfected the art of physical examination of the chest and introduced many clinical terms still used today.

The function of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs), which are key cells in vascular repair, is impaired in diabetes mellitus. Nitric oxide (NO) and reactive oxygen species can regulate EPC functions. EPCs tolerate oxidative stress by upregulating superoxide dismutase (SOD), the enzyme that neutralizes superoxide anion (O2-). Therefore, we investigated the roles of NO and SOD in glucose-stressed EPCs.