Maximum Sound Pressure Levels at 7 Tesla Whats All This Fuss About?

Sebastian Schmitter¹, Marco Mueller¹, Wolfhard Semmler¹, Michael Bock¹

In this work the acoustic resonances of a 7 T system were examined and the linear dependency of the sound pressure on the gradient amplitude were verified. The protocols of three different, fast imaging sequences were adjusted on the scanners resonances so that they generate a maximum SPL. A maximum SPL value of 112 dB was found for a sinusoidal EPI sequence, which is similar to SPL values of a 1.5 T system. Thus, regarding acoustic safety, the same safety measures can be applied for this specific 7 T MR system as to 1.5 T systems from the same manufacturer.