Ling Mei1, 2, Xiaojing Long*1, Qian Huang2, Haibo Yu3, Yanjun Diao1, 3, Wanzhang Yang4, Bensheng Qiu*1, 5
1Paul C. Lauterbur Research Center for Biomedical Imaging, Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China; 2Department of Electronic and Information Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China; 3Shenzhen Hospital of TCM Affiliated Guangzhou University of TCM, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China; 4Shenzhen Nanshan Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China; 5Department of Radiology, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, United States
Three types of metal acupuncture needles were evaluated with respect to MR imaging artifact and RF-induced heating effect. The gold needle generated little artifact, and the Austenitic stainless steel needle produced moderate artifacts in both phantom and in-vivo experiments. However, the traditional stainless steel needle produced huge artifacts. The temperature of the three needles in the phantom have no significant change during a long time MR scanning. In conclusion, gold and Austenitic stainless steel acupuncture needles are MR compatible and safe, which can be used for systemic research on the ancient acupuncture using a modern and powerful MR imaging modality.
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