Magnetic resonance imaging near metal implants

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Physics

Background:

• Increasing use of MR-safe metallic hardware necessitates MRI near implants.
• MRI offers superior soft-tissue contrast for diagnosing complications.
• Conventional MRI spatial encoding is severely compromised near metallic hardware.

Purpose of the Study:

• To discuss the physical principles underlying MRI challenges near metallic hardware.
• To review existing and novel solutions for mitigating these challenges.
• To highlight promising approaches for clinical application.

Main Methods:

• Review of established techniques like view-angle tilting and short echo-time projection reconstruction.
• Discussion of advanced methods including single-point imaging and prepolarized MRI.
• Exploration of postprocessing image correction strategies.

Main Results:

• Several methods have been developed over two decades to address MRI artifacts near metal.
• Recent technical advances have led to two promising alternative approaches.
• Understanding physical principles is key to developing effective solutions.

Conclusions:

• Effective MRI near metallic hardware requires overcoming spatial encoding limitations.
• A variety of techniques exist, with ongoing development of novel solutions.
• Improved MRI near metal holds significant clinical diagnostic potential.