Subhendra Nath Sarkar1, Ananth Madhuranthakam2, David Alsop1, Neil Rofsky1, Reed Busse3, Rafeeque Bhadelia1, Efstathios Papavassiliou4, David Hackney1
1Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; 2Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Boston, MA; 3Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Madison, WI; 4Neurosurgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
Implants including pacemakers often present routine MRI contraindications due to tissue heating. Device manufacturers sometimes issue guidelines reducing risks for these patients. Since these restrictions reduce quality or eliminate MRI altogether, we explored the limits to which SAR can be lowered using a modified 3D FSE sequence and optimized the refocusing pulse trains. Isotropic 3D T2 and FLAIR acquisitions with SNR and CNR comparable to clinical quality were achieved for brain imaging with SAR 100x lower than current practice. This minimizes the risk involved with high SAR and may offer MRI options to currently contraindicated patients with implants and pacemakers.