New MRI-safe Implant Electrode Design

Medical implants often prevent patients having Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans because the leads behave as antennas with respect to the RF excitation and cause hazardous heating in neural tissue. This manuscript describes an approach that virtually eliminates the risk of RF heating by means of easily-incorporated, mutually-coupled filars. The resulting leads need be neither physically larger nor significantly more costly than existing designs. Combined with thin insulation and surface roughening techniques, this manuscript represents the first complete release of recently-patented technologies. Both simulations and measurements at 128MHz are presented to confirm performance in 3-Tesla MRI machines.