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Actual Patient Position Versus Safety Models - Specific Absorption Rate Implications of Initial Head Position at Ultrahigh Field MRI.

Specific absorption rate (SAR) relates power absorption to tissue heating, and therefore, is used as a safety constraint in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This study investigates the implications of initial head positioning on local and whole-head SAR. A virtual body model was simulated at 161 positions inside an 8-channel parallel-transmit (pTx) array. On-axis displacements and rotations of up to 20 mm/degrees and off-axis axial/coronal translations were investigated. Single-channel, RF shimming (i.e., single-spoke pTx) and multi-spoke pTx pulses were designed for seven axial, five coronal and five sagittal slices at each position (the slices were consistent across all positions). Whole-head and local SAR were calculated using a single (centred) body position, multiple representative positions, and all simulated body positions. Positional mismatches between safety models and actual positions cause SAR underestimation. For axial imaging, the actual peak local SAR was up to 4.2-fold higher for both single-channel and 5-spokes pTx, 3.5-fold higher for 3-/4-spokes pTx, and 2-fold higher for RF shimming and 2-spokes pTx, compared to that calculated using the centred body position. For sagittal and coronal imaging, the underestimation of peak local SAR was up to 5.2-fold and 3.8-fold, respectively. Using all body positions to estimate SAR prevented SAR underestimation but yielded up to 11-fold SAR overestimation for RF shimming. Local SAR of single-channel and parallel-transmit multi-spokes pulses showed considerable dependence on initial patient position. RF shimming yielded much lower sensitivity to positional mismatches for axial imaging but not for sagittal and coronal imaging. This was deemed because of the higher degrees-of-freedom of control offered by the investigated coil array for axial imaging. Whole-head SAR is less sensitive to positional mismatches compared to local SAR. Nevertheless, whole-head SAR increased by up to 80% for sagittal imaging. Local and whole-head SAR were observed to be more sensitive to positional mismatches in the axial plane, due to variations in coil-tissue proximity. Using all possible body positions in the safety model may become substantially over-conservative and limit imaging performance, especially for the RF shimming mode for axial imaging.