Practical Aspects of MR Imaging in the Presence of Conductive Guide Wires

Natalie Tong¹, Andriy Shmatukha², Peter Asmah³, Jeff Stainsby²

Various aspects of RF-induced heating of guide wires during their MRI guidance have been investigated in the past. However, the previous works focused on worst-case tip heating in either fully-immersed or tip-immersed (and otherwise free) guide wires of unpractical lengths. This study simulates real clinical conditions. A product guide wire and a same-length conductive wire were partially inserted into a torso-size phantom. Significant heating occurred at the insertion point, independent of tip heating, with a strong correlation to excitation frequency dependent imaging parameters. Heat transfer through the wire was demonstrated to be a safety concern.