Impact of Lateral Movement of Patients on the RF-Induced Heating of Active Implantable Medical Devices at 3T MRI

Motivation: In wide-bore MRI scanners, patients are often positioned with a lateral offset, necessitating the investigation of RF-induced heating of Active Implantable Medical Devices (AIMDs) under such conditions. Goal(s): Investigate the impact of lateral shifts on AIMD heating. Approach: Temperature rises for two AIMD systems were evaluated across different body positions inside the MRI coil, following the transfer function method. The device models or transfer functions (TF) were developed, and tangential component of electric fields (Etan) along implant trajectories were extracted from human model simulations. Results: Depending on the clinical placement of the implants, lateral position can significantly alter AIMD heating during MRI scans. Impact: This research demonstrates that patients with AIMDs, positioned with lateral offsets, may have additional heating hazards relative to patients centered in wide bore MRI coils.