Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radio frequency (RF)-induced heating is one of the most important concerns of MRI safety for patients, especially with orthopaedic healthcare products. In this chapter, numerical modelling and simulations were conducted to study the RF-induced heating within a 1.5T and 3T magnetic resonance (MR) environment. Numerical simulations were firstly conducted to study the difference between the cases of implantable medical devices inside the phantom and the human body. Then, numerical modelling were conducted to describe the difference of electromagnetic behaviours between the homogeneous phantom and heterogeneous human tissues. The MRI RF-induced heating due to an implantable medical device behaves significantly different in homogeneous media and in heterogeneous human body. For typical orthopaedic medical devices, such as healthcare products applied to shoulder, humerus, hip, femur and tibia, the properties of the RF-induced heating are different in general phantom and in human body. The hot spot location, as well as worst case configuration were evaluated and it was found that they were determined by the incident field and electromagnetic properties of medium. With further scaling, the RF-induced heating in human body for the orthopedic devices can be assessed by phantom studies.
Part of the book: High-Resolution Neuroimaging