Loading...
Technique to assess the compatibility of medical implants to the RF Field in MRI
Abstract
The standard technique for determining the compatibility of medical implants to the magnetic and RF fields present in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), requires access to an MRI machine. For implants comprising metals of mostly the non-ferrous kind, it is only the RF field of an MRI machine that is of concern. Implant electrodes can concentrate the RF field in the surrounding tissue and give rise to joule heating. The inherent design of Spinal Cord Stimulators (SCS) and Deep Brain Stimulators (DBS) makes these implants particularly susceptible to hazardous levels of RF heating. We propose a technique that offers a quick and indicative assessment of the compatibility of implant leads to the RF field in 3-Tesla MRI, without needing access to an MRI machine. A dipole antenna, driven by a power amplifier and Continuous Wave (CW), injects RF energy into a gelled saline phantom. The heating in the gel near a test implant electrode is monitored with a fiber optic thermometer. The results are calibrated against measurements made in a 3-Tesla MRI machine.
Type
Conference Contribution
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
McCabe, S. O., & Scott, J. B. (2015). Technique to assess the compatibility of medical implants to the RF Field in MRI. In W. Hong, X. Zhu, G. Yang, Z. Song, & F. Meng (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2015 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC) (Vol. 2), 6-9 December 2015, Nangjing, China (pages 1-3). Washington, DC, USA: IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/APMC.2015.7413084
Date
2015
Publisher
IEEE
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
This is an author’s accepted version of an article published in the Proceedings of the 2015 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC). ©2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.