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Leonardo Angelone |
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The overall goal of our research
is to assess the significance and the effect of the biological and physical
parameters on the electromagnetic field (EMF) and temperature distribution
inside the human head in presence of radio-frequency (RF) field during
high-field MRI acquisitions. The short-term questions to be
addressed include: 1) how EMF and thermal distribution are affected by
spatial resolution and anatomical accuracy of the numerical model, geometry
and physical properties of RF coils and EEG electrodes/leads, and dielectric
and thermal properties of specific tissues; b) how to evaluate the
discrepancy between numerical models and real experiment. The longer-term and broader questions we
would like to address are: 1) How EMF and thermal distribution are affected
by the presence of a disease, local and global blood perfusion of tissues; 2)
What is the significance of EMF and thermal distribution in terms of
structural and functional effects in the human head at smaller scale -
biological level. To answer these questions, we have
developed a framework based on a combination of human head models (in
collaboration with the Center for Morphometric Analysis), anatomically accurate
conductive phantoms for temperature and MRI measurements, numerical models of
RF coils, numerical models of EEG electrodes and leads, as well as
custom-made EEG caps. Computation and validation are performed using
commercially available and custom-made numerical electromagnetic and thermal
solvers. This framework has been used for safety studies (simultaneous EEG-
high-fields fMRI, Deep Brain Stimulation) and RF coil design (in
collaboration with Dr. Larry Wald). Contact
info: angelone (at) nmr (dot) mgh
(dot) harvard (dot) edu |
