Imaging Artifacts of Novel Laser-cut Venous Stents: Dependence between Stent Design and Radiofrequency Shielding

Motivation: RF shielding up to 95% in stents creates image artifacts that can impact an accurate diagnosis of vessel patency after stent implantation. Goal(s): The association between design parameters of novel venous stents and their RF shielding properties were investigated. Approach: Therefore, field simulations and measurements were performed of the relative induced B1 in venous stents with different lengths and cell geometries. Results: Edge length of the stent cells and their orientation relative to the B1 transmit field determine the amount of RF shielding. Impact: The work provides information about the correlation of venous stent geometries and RF shielding artifacts. Sequence parameters e.g. excitation flip angle could be adapted for different stent models to possibly achieve higher intraluminal signal in post-implantation MRI venography.