A novel brain stimulation technology provides compatibility with MRI.
Clinical electrical stimulation systems--such as pacemakers and deep brain stimulators (DBS)--are an increasingly common therapeutic option to treat a large range of medical conditions. Despite their remarkable success, one of the significant limitations of these medical devices is the limited compatibility with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a standard diagnostic tool in medicine. During an MRI exam, the leads used with these devices, implanted in the body of the patient, act as an electric antenna potentially causing a large amount of energy to be absorbed in the tissue, which can lead to serious heat-related injury. This study presents a novel lead design that reduces the antenna effect and allows for decreased tissue heating during MRI. The optimal parameters of the wire design were determined by a combination of computational modeling and experimental measurements. The results of these simulations were used to build a prototype, which was tested in a gel phantom during an MRI scan. Measurement results showed a three-fold decrease in heating when compared to a commercially available DBS lead. Accordingly, the proposed design may allow a significantly increased number of patients with medical implants to have safe access to the diagnostic benefits of MRI.
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, U.S.A.|Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, U.S.A.|Division of Biomedical Physics, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Peter
P
Serano
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, U.S.A.|Division of Biomedical Physics, Office of Science and Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.
Leonardo M
LM
Angelone
Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Husam
H
Katnani
Department of Neurosurgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Emad
E
Eskandar
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, U.S.A.
Giorgio
G
Bonmassar
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D004867:Equipment Design / Q000379:methods; D004869:Equipment Safety / Q000379:methods; D006361:Heating / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging