RF-induced heating evaluation for patients during MRI breast imaging

Abstract

This paper investigates the radiofrequency (RF)-induced heating for patients undergoing Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) breast imaging. One supine and three prone posture models are developed based on the posable female adult model. The electromagnetic fields inside these four posture models are evaluated numerically. The simulated results show that the peak averaged specific absorption rate over 1 gram has no substantial difference among the four posture models. However, the electric field distributions in the coronal slice for the prone posture models are higher than from supine posture model. It is observed that there is no evidence indicating the RF-induced heating hazards for patients during MRI breast imaging. However, higher electric field distributions in the spinal region can potentially lead to RF-induced heating concerns for patients with spinal implants.