Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2014
Abstract
Background: For patients with deep brain stimulators (DBS), local absorbed radiofrequency (RF) power is unknown and is much higher than what the system estimates. We developed a comprehensive, highquality brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol for DBS patients utilizing three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance sequences at very low RF power. Methods: Six patients with DBS were imaged (10 sessions) using a transmit/receive head coil at 1.5 Tesla with modified 3D sequences within ultra-low specific absorption rate (SAR) limits (0.1 W/kg) using T2, fast fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T1- weighted image contrast. Tissue signal and tissue contrast from the low-SAR images were subjectively and objectively compared with routine clinical images of six age-matched controls. Results: Low-SAR images of DBS patients demonstrated tissue contrast comparable to high-SAR images and were of diagnostic quality except for slightly reduced signal. Conclusions: Although preliminary, we demonstrated diagnostic quality brain MRI with optimized, volumetric sequences in DBS patients within very conservative RF safety guidelines offering a greater safety margin.
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Comments
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Sarkar, S. N., Papavassiliou, E., Hackney, D. B., Alsop, D. C., Shih, L. C., Madhuranthakam, A. J., ... & Bhadelia, R. A. (2014). Three‐dimensional brain MRI for DBS patients within ultra‐low radiofrequency power limits. Movement Disorders, 29(4), 546-549., which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/mds.25808. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.