Analysing the effects of metallic biomaterial design and imaging sequences on MRI interpretation challenges due to...

Biometals cause signal loss and susceptibility artefacts in the surrounding tissue, resulting in deterioration in magnetic resonance (MR) images. This metal-artefact effect may lead to interpretation challenges for MR images. Therefore, artefact reduction is required to obtain higher-quality images. This paper aims to analyse the impact of imaging sequence and metallic biomaterial design on MR image artefacts. In this respect, implant specimens were designed in thin, thick, and pointed forms and manufactured using 316LVM, 316L, CoCr-alloy, and Ti-alloy, which are commonly utilized materials in the biomaterials field. Specimens were placed in a phantom that simulates average human anatomy separately and scanned in a 1.5 T MRI under four imaging conditions: "Axial-T₁-Gradient-Echo (GRE)", "Sagittal-T₁-GRE", "Axial-T₂-Spin-Echo (SE)" and "Sagittal-T₂-SE". Images were analysed regarding image artefact amount. The lower magnetic susceptibility of Ti-alloy specimens caused 84.76% less deterioration than 316LVM specimens in the MR images with the mean image artefact-to-specimen size ratio. Thinner implant designs provided better performance regarding the metal artefact by reducing the artefact-to-specimen size ratio. T₂SE decreased the image artefact by 44.7% for 316LVM and 54.6% for Ti-Alloy specimens and provided better image quality than T₁GRE for clinical interpretation. This study reveals that image artefacts directly depend on material content, implant volume, geometry, and imaging sequence selection. The minor artefact effect of T₂SE provides more accurate MR images than T₁GRE regarding the interpretation of the images of the patients with biometals. The higher magnetic susceptibility of biometals causes more deterioration of the images.