An ideal dielectric coat to avoid prosthesis RF-artefacts in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

Abstract The number of people submitted to total hip or knee arthroplasty increased in the last years and it is likely to grow further. Hence, the importance of a proper investigation tool that allows to determine and recognize the potential presence of perioperative and/or postoperative diseases becomes clear. Although the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique demonstrated several advantages over the other common tomography tools, it suffers from the arise of image artefacts if it is performed in presence of metallic prostheses. In particular, the so-called RF-artefacts are caused by the inhomogeneity in the radiofrequency magnetic field of MRI, due to the electric currents induced on the metal surface by the field itself. In this work, a near-zero permittivity dielectric coat is simulated to reduce those currents and, therefore, the RF-artefacts onset in the final image. Numerical results confirm that the dielectric coat strongly reduces the magnetic field inhomogeneity, suggesting a possible solution to a well-known problem in the MRI field.