Effect of magnetic resonance imaging on near visual acuity

Abstract

Purpose: urpose: To determine the variation of near visual acuity, in patients exposed during short periods to intense magnetic fields in studies of magnetic resonance imaging.

Methods: Descriptive study of a case series that included 40 healthy and literate individuals older than 40 years, nine of them men, submitted to a procedure of head and neck magnetic resonance imaging; all of them had near visual acuity better than 20/200 without glasses, and were not underthe effects of ansiolytic medications.

Near vision was measured with the Jaeger chart before and immediately after the RM imaging procedure. Measurements were carried out by two different observers; every one of them did not know the results obtained by the other.

Results: esults: Means for near vision acuity before and after the magnetic resonance imaging procedure were, respectively, 1.4324 ± 0.4766 m and 1.4375 ± 0.5024 m (p = 0.505).

Conclusions: In the evaluated group, no statistically significant change was observed in near vision acuity after head and neck magnetic resonance imaging procedures.