On the Importance of Solving for Temperature Versus Local SAR When Evaluating RF-Induced Heating in the Magnetic Resonance Environment

Previous work has determined that solving for a weighted average local SAR is a relatively easy to way to estimate worst-case RF-induced heating in MRI. The purpose of this study was to determine the importance of solving for temperature using a sequentially coupled electromagnetics and heat transfer model versus local SAR alone when evaluating worst-case RF-induced heating. The results demonstrate that to fully capture RF-induced heating in MRI, temperature rise must be solved for using a sequentially coupled electromagnetic and heat transfer model due to the complex interplay of electric and thermal material properties for implants and the surrounding tissue.