Estimating Resting HRV during fMRI: A Comparison between Laboratory and Scanner Environment

Heart rate variability (HRV) is regularly assessed in neuroimaging studies as an indicator of autonomic, emotional or cognitive processes. In this study, we investigated the influence of a loud and cramped environment during magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on resting HRV measures. We compared recordings during functional MRI sessions with recordings in our autonomic laboratory (LAB) in 101 healthy subjects. In the LAB, we recorded an electrocardiogram (ECG) and a photoplethysmogram (PPG) over 15 min. During resting state functional MRI, we acquired a PPG for 15 min. We assessed anxiety levels before the scanning in each subject. In 27 participants, we performed follow-up sessions to investigate a possible effect of habituation. We found a high intra-class correlation ranging between 0.775 and 0.996, indicating high consistency across conditions. We observed no systematic influence of the MRI environment on any HRV index when PPG signals were analyzed. However, SDNN and RMSSD were significantly higher when extracted from the PPG compared to the ECG. Although we found a significant correlation of anxiety and the decrease in HRV from LAB to MRI, a familiarization session did not change the HRV outcome. Our results suggest that psychological factors are less influential on the HRV outcome during MRI than the methodological choice of the cardiac signal to analyze.

A Miniature, Fiber-Optic Vibrometer for Measuring Unintended Acoustic Output of Active Hearing Implants during Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Making use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnostics on patients with implanted medical devices requires caution due to mutual interactions between the device and the electromagnetic fields used by the scanner that can cause a number of adverse events. The presented study offers a novel test method to quantify the risk of unintended output of acoustically stimulating hearing implants. The design and operating principle of an all-optical, MRI safe vibrometer is outlined, followed by an experimental verification of a prototype. Results obtained in an MRI environment indicate that the system can detect peak displacements down to 8 pm for audible frequencies. Feasibility testing was performed with an active middle ear implant that was exposed to several pulse sequences in a 1.5 Tesla MRI environment. Magnetic field induced actuator vibrations, measured during scanning, turned out to be equivalent to estimated sound pressure levels between 25 and 85 dB SPL, depending on the signal frequency. These sound pressure levels are situated well below ambient sound pressure levels generated by the MRI scanning process. The presented case study therefore indicates a limited risk of audible unintended output for the examined hearing implant during MRI.

RF Exposure Assessment for Various Poses of Patient Assistant in Open MRI Environment

In this study, the radio-frequency (RF) energy exposure of patient assistants was assessed for an open magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system based on numerical computations of the head and body RF coil. Various poses of the patient assistants were defined to see how poorly they affected the RF energy exposure. For the assessments, the peak spatial-averaged specific absorption rate (SAR) levels were carefully compared with each patient assistant pose based on the finite-difference time domain calculations of RF coil models when the patient was placed in such coils in a 0.3 Tesla open MRI system. Overall, the SAR levels of the patient assistant were much lower than those of the patient. However, significantly increased SAR levels were observed under specific conditions, including a larger loop size of the patient assistants’ arms and a closer distance to the RF coils. A comparably high level of SAR to the patient’s body was also found. More careful investigations are needed to prevent the increase of SAR in patient assistants for open MRI systems at higher field strengths.