Nitropaste questions

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Hi everyone I have a question about nitropaste. any help would be great.

I heard that if you are sending a patient down to MRI and the patient has nitropaste applied to their body, you should wipe it off before they go down. This is because nitropaste can ignite and burn the patient while in MRI. I also heard it can ignite if you shock or cardiovert the patient as well. Is this true? And if so why.

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Well.. from what I know about all nitro related products is that it does contain the chemical nitroglycerin which has been used in explosive products. Technically, the patches/ paste should only contain a small amount of that chemical, which "shouldn't" harm the patient drastically, but there is the risk that it would explode on them.

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Ah yea that makes sense that nitroglycerine is explosive. What i'm wondering is can it explode from exposure to magnets

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Specializes in Utilization Management.

My drug book says transdermal patches should be removed before having a MRI, cardioversion, or defibrillation because there's a risk of the patient getting burned. Nothing about the ointment. The only information I could find about these patches "exploding" on patients was from the early 80's to mid 90's, nothing current, and even that information was more about electrical arching and burns.

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