Apr Talk: Evaluation of MR Electromagnetic Fields for Subjects with Implanted Devices (HYBRID)

Many patients have health issues that require living with an implanted device, such as a pacemaker that helps the heart keep its rhythm. For safety reasons, when a person with an implanted device needs an MRI, scanning can be limited to an MRI machine with a lower magnetic field, such as a 1.5 Tesla (or 1.5T) MRI scanner. However, when a patient needs a brain scan, an MRI with a stronger magnetic field, a 3T MRI, is the best technology to get high-quality images.
A few years ago, Mayo Clinic received the first compact 3T MRI scanner, an advanced prototype developed under an NIH-funded collaboration between GE Research and Mayo Clinic. The compact 3T scanner is a small, high-performance machine with a narrow central chamber, known as the patient bore. The small bore of the compact 3T scanner allows for scans of the head and extremities. For patients with metal implanted devices, whether pacemakers or spinal stimulators, a major advantage of using the compact 3T MRI for a brain scan is that the strength of the electromagnetic fields drops off rapidly outside the bore and, therefore, is lower at the location of the implanted device than around the brain. This talk explores whether this compact 3T scanner can be used for brain scans of patients with metallic implanted devices.
Speaker(s): Lydia Bardwell Speltz, PhD,
Agenda:
6:30 – 7:00 Social half hour to grab food and drink
7:00 – 8:00 Technical talk
Room: Mann Hall, Bldg: Medical Sciences Building, 300 3rd Ave SW, Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55902, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/416420