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Abstract
Contemporary diagnostics relies heavily on techniques based on radiation, radio nuclides and electromagnetic fields. In spite of this, the presence of hypothetical biological risks associated to these radiation is often neglected. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is based on electromagnetic and static fields, in order to produce detailed human body images. MRI is an useful diagnostics analysis, widely used in medicine, particularly in cardiology and neurology.
A large literature exists on biological effects on electromagnetic fields. Most of studies seem to exclude harmful effects of electromagnetic fields for human health. Nevertheless, since the biological effects of static fields (such as those produced by MRI during a clinical investigation) have been poorly studied, it cannot be excluded they may be able to alter DNA structure.
The aim of this work is to investigate the possible genetic effects induced by MRI, carrying out both in vitro and in vivo experiments. In in vitro experiments, blood lymphocyte cultures form healthy donors have been exposed to MRI for different periods of time and to different sequences, in order to build dose-effect curves. Lymphocytes were cultured immediately after the MRI treatment and 24 hrs after in order to evaluate a possible damage recovery. In in vivo experiments, blood was taken from patients just before and after MRI scan. In both in vitro and in vivo experiments, genotoxicity was evaluated by the micronucleus (MN) test, which represents a widely accepted biomarker of somatic DNA damage. The in vitro data indicate a significative dose dependent increase of MN frequency, at both times of culture. Furthermore, after 24 hrs of recovery, the MN increase is less evident than that at time 0. Data obtained from in vivo cultures also show a significative increase of MN frequency after MRI
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analysis. A molecular analysis with a pancentromeric probes, strongly suggests a clastogenic effect of MRI.
