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[–] 75 points 8 months ago (40 children)

Wow: Balls of Steel AND Darwin Award at the same time...

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  • [+] -16 points 8 months ago (39 children)

    A little metal wont kill you. It will ruin the image.

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  • [–] 61 points 8 months ago (21 children)

    Metal will ruin a CT scan. Metal will kill you in an MRI machine.

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  • [+] -6 points 8 months ago (19 children)
  • [–] 32 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    Isn't that just because they use non-magnetic metals for implants?

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  • [–] -4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

    And that's zinc shot. Perhaps they're steel inside, but the outside is clearly zinc.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    How on earth can you tell the difference between steel and zinc at a glance?

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

    Zinc has a characteristic light bluish tint and oxidizes to white, not yellow or brown. Some of them appear slightly dull and oxidised with a grey or white layer.

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  • [–] 4 points 8 months ago* (1 child)

    And how do you propose to know how blue-tinted those balls are without being able to tell what they're reflecting and what the camera's white balance is set to?

    I blurred the image and took a few colour samples; the balls are grey in the image, with very slightly more red in them than green or blue. That doesn't mean they're actually grey; they could be slightly blue and reflecting a slightly red scene or vice versa. They could be slightly green but the camera settings have "corrected" it to look grey.

    How can you tell that the "dull" ones are oxidised, as opposed to roughened, blurred due to movement or covered with some other substance like lubricant?

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago*

    All excellent points! I concede to your deeper consideration. (Though I do think that a "roughened" ball bearing would rather prove my point for me, and that those which appear roughened are largely also those under other balls, lessening the chance that they are moving)

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago (10 children)

    In general, metallic orthopedic implants are not affected by MRI. 

    This isn't an implant though. Massive difference.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago (7 children)

    I soon expect to have screws implanted in my spine. I also have other infirmities. I hope like hell to never have screws ripped through my vertebrae by an MRI.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (3 children)

    Implants are non-magnetic. Wrecks the image, though.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    Hopefully they don't need to do an MRI of my spine after they operate on it - apparently for their sake, not mine.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    Ugh, yeah, how do they even do MRIs for people with metal parts?

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    I think, as someone else said, things installed into the body are usually titanium and thus non ferrous. Fortunately they don't generally cause issues with MRIs as a result.

    (I only know this because when I broke my ankle, during the pre-surgery interview, I asked the surgeon about going through metal scanners at an airport.)

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  • [+] -6 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    What are implants made of? Stainless for the most part.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Usually titanium, but yeah sometimes medical stainless steel. Both are non-ferromagnetic, especially titanium. These balls look like they could well be normal steel or any other metal. Also, implants - unlike these metal balls - are usually screwed firmly into your bones. So yeah, implants should be mostly fine on MRI. Loose balls of dubious metal? Wouldn't advise it. Keep in mind MRIs are literally powerful enough that metals in tattoo ink can even be an issue - which the article you linked mentions itself.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago (15 children)

    I think its not about the property of beeing a metall ist a bout beeing ferromagnetic (In that case probably not an issue because these bearing balls are usually out of some kind stainless steel. )

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  • [–] -1 points 8 months ago (10 children)

    I was told metal interferes with the scan. By a guy doing the scan.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago (8 children)

    I was told that because I have stents (plastic coated with platinum) I can never get an MRI again by my cardiologist.

    A friend who makes knives felt the little bits of metal that he’s picked up in his skin over years of grinding blades getting pulled out of him during an MRI.

    Maybe aluminum foil in your pocket would only “interfere with the scan,” but those magnets are powerful enough to make any metal in your body come out, violently.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (7 children)

    I know someone with metal pins in their leg and they have had a MRI. It depends on the metal. Since I didn't specify what kind of metal everyone rushes forward to speculate on how wrong I am.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    The post is obviously insinuating that these are iron balls, so in this context you are wrong.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    Its important to you I be wrong. How powerless you must be in your day to day life.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Not at all, I was simply pointing out why you were wrong. You're hallucinating this supposed importance that everyone places on you being wrong.

    This is at least your second comment of you complaining about someone disagreeing with you, so maybe your last sentence is projection and you're the one who's feels powerless in your life?

    Sounds like a sad way to live.

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    MRIs work because strong enough magnetic fields will interact with any material, not just ferrous metals. This can be impacted by the structure said materials form (stents are a weave like a finger trap and therefore more prone to interaction with magnetic fields than say a solid cylinder) but I’d be inclined to say your friend was lucky. Ball bearings like in the OP are nearly always steel outside of specific high end applications and therefore would behave like they were coming out of a shotgun shell.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago

    Nothing you are going to type here is going to change the comments made by the tech operating the imaging system while I'm testing network connections right next to him around fifteen years ago.

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