Electromagnetic Modeling of Pacemaker Lead Heating During MRI

Report, 2011

The electromagnetic part of pacemaker lead heating during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a resonant phenomenon which is complicated by, among other factors, the wide range of length scales involved in the problem. In this work, the multi-scale part of the problem is taken into special consideration during the modeling process. The model incorporates a radio frequency coil, a human body phantom, and a highly detailed model of a pacemaker system with a bipolar lead. Several configurations of pacemaker systems exposed to MRI are modeled and the results clearly show the importance of detailed lead modeling. Furthermore, modeling of resonant structures is investigated by a comparison between different modeling techniques.