SAR Comparison for Infant Due to Different Positioning Within an MRI Head Coil

Zhangwei Wang¹, Owen Arthurs², Desmond T. B. Yeo³, Fraser Robb¹

Pediatric body MR imaging is limited by the lack of dedicated coils. Many infants are typically imaged using adult head or knee coils, but the SAR consequences are unknown. Compared to adults, infants have several unique physiological and physical characteristics that may influence the thermal risk during RF exposure. In this work, we use EM numerical modeling to evaluate the local SAR deposition in an infant body model irradiated imaged by an adult head coil. SAR comparisons are performed for the infant model with infant-specific versus adult-specific electrical properties, and placed at different landmark positions.