We Wish You A Merry CHRISTMAS

Break out the figgy pudding and deck the halls, it's everyone's favorite time of year: The British Medical Journal's annual Christmas issue has released. And as is tradition, the doctors publishing in this journal are committed to answering only the most pressing holiday-based medical questions.

Funny enough, one particular study is absolutely worth mentioning, considering last week's blockbuster piece on how an unfortunate individual received a bullet in their butt after taking their handgun through an MRI machine. In what has to be the coincidence of the year, a group of scientists from Singapore and England have conducted a study analyzing the behavior of common metallic health care–related objects in the presence of a 3 tesla MRI machine.

While a gun was not included in the Common Healthcare Related Instruments Subjected To Magnetic Attraction Study (CHRISTMAS) trial – this was an American-free research project – the researchers tested numerous other metallic items that would be commonly found on patients or in medical facilities, such as coins, biscuit tins (there's the British coming through for us), a cell phone, a credit card, and a knife.

The procedure was quite simple; the test item was loaded into a test rig the researchers called the electromagnetic launch funnel (ELF), and the MRI machine was turned on. The item was slowly guided toward the center of the machine, and the distance from the MRI machine at which the test item was launched – the site where applied newtonian mechanics triggers acceleration (SANTA) – was recorded. In addition, a layer of ballistic gel (sorry, no cute acronym this time) was deployed around the machine to simulate human tissue, and if any items managed to penetrate the gel, the depth of penetration was also measured.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the knife penetrated deepest into the ballistic gel and had the second highest SANTA value, beaten only by the 220 g biscuit tin. The researchers did find that weight did not necessarily correlate with higher SANTA values; for example, a stethoscope's SANTA score was half that of the knife and heavy biscuit tin. The researchers warned any physicians to avoid bringing Christmas or seasonal treats into the MRI room, or to keep the treats in their original paper packaging, as a biscuit tin's SANTA value is just too high for comfort.

On the positive side, however, objects such as the cell phone and credit card maintained their functionality and memory, and the MRI machine maintained image integrity even after electronics passed through its magnetic field. So, you may not be able to take your biscuit tin with you when you get an MRI, but if you want to post viral TikToks from within the machine, you should be good to go. And that's a CHRISTMAS gift worth celebrating.