MR-tomography on patients with heart pacemakers-a numerical study

Author

Golombeck, M.-A. ; Dössel, O.

Author_Institution

Inst. of Biomed. Eng., Karlsruhe Univ., Germany

Volume

1

fYear

2004

fDate

1-5 Sept. 2004

Firstpage

1076

Lastpage

1079

Abstract

Patients having a heart pacemaker are not allowed to go to MR tomography (MRT). One of the most dangerous effects is the heating of the tissue around the electrode caused by the coupling to the RF field of the MR system. Experiments have been carried out using tanks filled with saline water and large heating has sometimes been observed. Other experiments e.g. with electrodes in the brain did not show any heating at all. In this work numerical studies have been carried out to understand the different results. In conclusion it is suggested that MRT could be possible if the "normal" geometry of the wires of a heart pacemaker is ensured and an open MR system is used.

Keywords

biological effects of fields; biological tissues; biomedical MRI; biomedical electrodes; brain; cardiology; numerical analysis; pacemakers; MR-tomography; RF field coupling; electrode; heart pacemaker; numerical study; saline water; tissue heating; Conductivity; Electrodes; Heart; Heating; Imaging phantoms; Magnetic resonance imaging; Pacemakers; Radio frequency; Temperature; Wire; MRT; Pacemaker;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2004. IEMBS '04. 26th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8439-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.2004.1403350

Filename

1403350