RF Safety Assessment of a 7T Head Coil Using Thermal Modeling with Discrete Vessels

Astrid L.H.M.W. van Lier¹, Cornelis A.T. van den Berg¹, Dennis W.J. Klomp¹, Bas W. Raaymakers¹, Jan J.W. Lagendijk¹

The RF safety assessment of a commercially available 7T head coil using thermal simulations with a discrete vessels model is shown. This model incorporates the heating of blood in the arteries and veins as it traverses through a heated volume, which is an addition to Pennes bio heat transfer equation. Comparing the maximum SAR with the maximum temperature rise within the head it was concluded that the restrictions based on volume integrated SAR calculations are over-conservative, which results in the sub-optimal imaging.