Vascular Flow Effects on RF Heating of Passive Implants: The Use of a Flow Modified ASTM F2182 Phantom in a Siemens Tim Trio 3T Scanner

Alan Leewood¹, David Gross¹, Jeff Crompton², Sergei Yushanov², Orlando P. Simonetti³, Yu Ding³

MR safety of electrically conductive passive implants is directly related to localized heating of tissue when the device is subjected to RF powered E-fields. Current MR Safety methodology relies primarily on experimental methods (ASTM F2182), which use a gel phantom and produce conservative estimates of temperature rise for vascular devices due to lack of blood-flow. Ultimately, this raises the issue that clinically indicated MRI scans may be inappropriately withheld from patients because RF heating concerns were based on inappropriately conservative test methods. This work is an investigation of the effects of including vascular flow on the cooling of passive implants.