Reduction of artifact of metallic implant in magnetic resonance imaging by combining paramagnetic and diamagnetic materials

The method of coating the metallic implant made of paramagnetic materials with diamagnetic materials has been proposed to reduce the magnetic disturbance of metallic implants which causes artifact in magnetic resonance imaging. The optimal thicknesses of the diamagnetic coatings have been obtained for a straight cylindrical hip joint and an aneurysm clip by using the magnetic field analysis of the finite element method (FEM). Whereas in the manufacturing, with respect to the mechanical force of the diamagnetic material, etc., the new structure of dual-material model with diamagnetic material inside and paramagnetic material outside is considered better. In this paper, first the effectiveness of the structure of the dual- material model with actual diamagnetic material inside and paramagnetic material outside is investigated by using the FEM. Then optimal thicknesses of paramagnetic coating of two models are obtained. Finally the effectiveness of the dual- material model is verified by the experiment. (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3352582]