Christian Balmer1, Matthias Gass2, Hitendu Dave3, Firat Duru4, Roger Luechinger5. 1. Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Heart Centre, University Children's Hospital, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032, Zürich, Switzerland. christian.balmer@kispi.uzh.ch. 2. Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Heart Centre, University Children's Hospital, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032, Zürich, Switzerland. 3. Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery, Pediatric Heart Center, University Children's Hospital, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032, Zürich, Switzerland. 4. Department of Cardiology, University Heart Center Zurich, Raemistrasse 100, 8091, Zurich, Switzerland. 5. Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, Gloriastrasse 35, 8092, Zürich, Switzerland.
Abstract
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to systematically investigate the potential heating effects of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the presence of epicardial leads, which are connected to a device or abandoned, using a series of in vitro measurements. METHODS: The heating effects of MRI in a 1.5-T scanner were measured at the lead tip in a gel-filled tank. First, a transvenous lead (5086-45 cm, Medtronic) was compared with an epicardial lead (4968-35 cm, Medtronic) with and without connection to an MR-conditional pacemaker. Then, experiments were conducted using various lengths of epicardial leads exposed to MRI. RESULTS: (1) A temperature rise of + 2.5 °C was observed for the transvenous lead attached to an MRI-conditional pacemaker. The epicardial lead attached to the same pacemaker showed four times higher heating. (2) The transvenous lead without pacemaker showed four times higher heating, and the epicardial lead without pacemaker showed 30 times higher heating. (3) The epicardial lead coiled to 20 cm length without pacemaker showed 9 times higher heating. (4) Experiments with various lengths of epicardial leads showed that the shorter the leads were, the smaller was the heating effect. CONCLUSION: Standard clinical MRI investigations may result in pronounced heating at the tip of epicardial electrodes. Epicardial leads, which are not connected to a pacemaker and thus mimicking abandoned leads, may even result in a more pronounced rise in temperature at the lead tip. Therefore, current epicardial pacing systems may carry a substantial risk of inducing thermal damage of the neighboring tissue during MRI scanning.
PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to systematically investigate the potential heating effects of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the presence of epicardial leads, which are connected to a device or abandoned, using a series of in vitro measurements. METHODS: The heating effects of MRI in a 1.5-T scanner were measured at the lead tip in a gel-filled tank. First, a transvenous lead (5086-45 cm, Medtronic) was compared with an epicardial lead (4968-35 cm, Medtronic) with and without connection to an MR-conditional pacemaker. Then, experiments were conducted using various lengths of epicardial leads exposed to MRI. RESULTS: (1) A temperature rise of + 2.5 °C was observed for the transvenous lead attached to an MRI-conditional pacemaker. The epicardial lead attached to the same pacemaker showed four times higher heating. (2) The transvenous lead without pacemaker showed four times higher heating, and the epicardial lead without pacemaker showed 30 times higher heating. (3) The epicardial lead coiled to 20 cm length without pacemaker showed 9 times higher heating. (4) Experiments with various lengths of epicardial leads showed that the shorter the leads were, the smaller was the heating effect. CONCLUSION: Standard clinical MRI investigations may result in pronounced heating at the tip of epicardial electrodes. Epicardial leads, which are not connected to a pacemaker and thus mimicking abandoned leads, may even result in a more pronounced rise in temperature at the lead tip. Therefore, current epicardial pacing systems may carry a substantial risk of inducing thermal damage of the neighboring tissue during MRI scanning.
Entities:
Keywords:
Electromagnetic interference; Epicardial leads; Heating; Magnetic resonance imaging; Pacemaker
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