Will they fit? Development of a measurement device to assess body habitus compatibility with MRI bore diameter for emergency trauma imaging

Excessive obesity poses a significant limitation to radiographic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), particularly related to aperture or bore diameter due to the patient’s girth. Determination of whether a patient will fit into the bore of the MRI scanner is currently accomplished using patient height, weight, and MRI technician experience. These simple methods have proven unreliable. We sought to develop a device and method which could accurately determine whether a patient would fit into the MRI scanner. We developed an MRI template prototype which was tested against the standard radiology methods in a pilot study (n = 6). We then performed a prospective validation study in adult human volunteers (n = 100) to assess the accuracy of the MRI template. We collected height, weight, shoulder and pelvis girth/diameter for each study participant to evaluate the body dimension measurements that would assist in determination of whether a patient would fit into the MRI scanner. Using the MRI template, we determined that 11 of the 100 study participants would not fit in the MRI scanner and 10 were confirmed to not fit into the MRI aperture [positive predictive value (PPV) 0.91 (0.58–0.99); negative predictive value (NPV) 1.00 (0.95–1.00), sensitivity 1.00 (0.69–1.00), specificity 0.99 (0.93–0.99), likelihood ratio positive test 90 (12.81–632), likelihood ratio negative test 0, accuracy 99%]. In comparison, the body measurement method did not perform as well [PPV 0.66 (0.34–0.90), NPV 0.97 (0.92–0.99), sensitivity 0.80 (0.44–0.97), specificity 0.95 (0.89–0.98), likelihood ratio positive test 17.97 (6.56–49.2), likelihood ratio negative test 0.209 (0.06–0.72), accuracy 94%]. This study confirmed that the use of an MRI template is an accurate tool in determining whether an obese patient can fit through the MRI bore and be accommodated in the MRI scanner.