Safety of Tattoos, Permanent Make-Up, and Medical Implants in Population-Based 3T Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging: The Rhineland Study

Valerie Lohner; Simon J Enkirch; Elke Hattingen; Tony Stöcker; Monique M B Breteler

doi:10.3389/fneur.2022.795573

Safety of Tattoos, Permanent Make-Up, and Medical Implants in Population-Based 3T Magnetic Resonance Brain Imaging: The Rhineland Study

Front Neurol. 2022 Mar 22:13:795573. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.795573. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Valerie Lohner¹, Simon J Enkirch², Elke Hattingen^{2

3}, Tony Stöcker^{4

5}, Monique M B Breteler^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Population Health Sciences, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany.
² Clinic for Neuroradiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
³ Department of Neuroradiology, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
⁴ MR Physics, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.
⁶ Institute for Medical Biometry, Informatics and Epidemiology (IMBIE), Faculty of Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.

Abstract

Excluding persons from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research studies based on their medical history or because they have tattoos, can create bias and compromise the validity and generalizability of study results. In the population-based Rhineland Study, we limited exclusion criteria for MRI and allowed participants with passive medical implants, tattoos or permanent make-up to undergo MRI. Thereby, we could include 16.6% more people than would have been possible based on common recommendations. We observed no adverse events or artifacts. This supports that most passive medical implants, tattoos and permanent make-up are MRI suitable and can be scanned in research settings.

Keywords: MRI safety; epidemiology; medical implants; permanent make-up; population imaging; tattoos.