Logo der Physikalisch-Technischen Bundesanstalt

Modeling and Mitigating Peripheral Nerve Stimulations (PNS) in MRI

Kolloquium der Abteilung 8

Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) has become the major limitation in many fast MRI sequences for state-of-the-art gradient systems. We developed the first full PNS model for assessing magnetostimulation thresholds using coupled electromagnetic and neurodynamic simulations and a method to incorporate the PNS model as a constraints in the coil-winding design phase. Our model consists of comprehensive female and male body models for EM simulations, co-registered atlases of peripheral nerves, and a neurodynamic model describing the nerve responses to induced electric fields. We validated our framework based on three commercial MR gradient systems and found close resemblance between simulated thresholds and experimentally obtained group PNS thresholds.