900 MHz electromagnetic radiation effects on platinum intracranial implants

Intracranial aneurysms in surgically difficult locations are usually treated endovascularly. The treatment consists in the implantation of a tungsten or a platinum coil in the vein that is providing blood to the aneurysm sac. The implant is stopping the arrival of blood in the sac avoiding its rupture. Several articles have stated that in some cases, tungsten implants are severely damaged several months after the surgery and sometimes, they even completely disappear. As the phenomenon remained unexplained, tungsten implants were replaced by platinum implants but without more guarantees of success. The aim of this article is to check if we can expect platinum coils to be damaged like tungsten coils when implanted in the brain. As GSM mobile phone radiations have been suspected to contribute to the phenomenon, 900 MHz electromagnetic wave exposure of a tungsten and a platinum coil in a bloody environment have been reproduced. A corrosion of the tungsten filament was observed during the experiment while the platinum filament remained undamaged.