Towards an integrated radiofrequency safety concept for implant carriers in MRI based on sensor‐equipped implants and parallel transmission

Patients with active implants like cardiac pacemakers are usually excluded from MRI due to the possible pathologic heating of the lead's tip caused by the radio-frequency (RF) field. A concept was proposed that mitigates the RF hazards by combining "native safety" (no implant present, pre-calculated) and "implant safety" requirements (determined in situ by a sensor on the implant). Parallel transmission (pTx) can subsequently be used to optimize the RF-field to achieve safe B₁⁺-shims with high B₁⁺ homogenity and high average B₁⁺ field strength in the imaging plane. The concept was demonstrated by electromagnetic simulations in a human voxel model with a simplified spinal-cord implant in an 8-channel pTx body coil at 3T.

This cooperative work of PTB groups 8.11 and 8.14 as well as Magdeburg University (OVGU) was published in the journal NMR in Biomedicine: Towards an integrated RF safety concept for implant carriers in MRI based on sensor-equipped implants and parallel transmission (doi: 10.1002/nbm.4900).

Contact:

Johannes Petzold, E-Mail: Johannes.Petzold(at)ptb.de