Radio Frequency MRI coils and safety: how infrared thermography can support quality assurance

Background: The safety controls in Resonance Magnetic Imaging (MRI) diagnostic site are numerous and complex. Some of these are contained in international directives and regularly conducted by medical physics expert after acceptance tests, consisting of a series of checks, measurements, evaluations called quality controls (QCs) and made to guarantee the image quality of the equipment. In this context, ensuring that the coils are in proper operating conditions is important to prevent and reduce errors in use and to preserve patient safety. Results: A study by thermography was conducted to evaluate temperature changes of MRI coils during Quality Control (QC), in order to prevent any problems for the patient due to Radio Frequency waves. This experiment involves use of a thermal camera to detect temperature variations during MRI scans using head and body coils of two different tomography 1.5 T and 3.0 T static magnetic field. Thermal camera was positioned inside the MRI room to acquire images every 15 s for all the scansions duration. The observations have shown a temperature increase only for body coil of 1.5 MRI tomography, whereas no significative temperature variation has occurred for the other coils under observation. This temperature increase was later related to a fault of such coil. Conclusions: The authors believe this simple method useful as first approach, during routinely QCs, to verify coils functioning and so to avoid patient hazards and are preparing a methodological study about functioning of the coils with respect to their temperature variation.