Computational modeling and simulations are increasingly being used to complement experimental testing for analysis of safety and efficacy of medical devices. Multiple voxel- and surface-based whole- and partial-body models have been proposed in the literature, typically with spatial resolution in the range of 1–2 mm and with 10–50 different tissue types resolved. We have developed a multimodal imaging-based detailed anatomical model of the human head and neck, named “MIDA”. The model was obtained by integrating three different magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) modalities, the parameters of which were tailored to enhance the signals of specific tissues: i) structural T1- and T2-weighted MRIs; a specific heavily T2-weighted MRI slab with high nerve contrast optimized to enhance the structures of the ear and eye; ii) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) data to image the vasculature, and iii) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to obtain information on anisotropy and fiber orientation. The unique multimodal high-resolution approach allowed resolving 153 structures, including several distinct muscles, bones and skull layers, arteries and veins, nerves, as well as salivary glands. The model offers also a detailed characterization of eyes, ears, and deep brain structures. A special automatic atlas-based segmentation procedure was adopted to include a detailed map of the nuclei of the thalamus and midbrain into the head model. The suitability of the model to simulations involving different numerical methods, discretization approaches, as well as DTI-based tensorial electrical conductivity, was examined in a case-study, in which the electric field was generated by transcranial alternating current stimulation. The voxel- and the surface-based versions of the models are freely available to the scientific community.

Access to MRI is limited for patients with deep brain stimulation (DBS) implants due to safety hazards, including radiofrequency (RF) heating of tissue surrounding the leads. Computational models provide an exquisite tool to explore the multi-variate problem of RF heating and help better understand the interaction of electromagnetic fields and biological tissues. This paper presents a computational approach to assess RF-induced heating, in terms of specific absorption rate (SAR) in the tissue, around the tip of bilateral DBS leads during MRI at 64MHz/1.5 T and 127 MHz/3T. Patient-specific realistic lead models were constructed from post-operative CT images of nine patients operated for sub-thalamic nucleus DBS. Finite element method was applied to calculate the SAR at the tip of left and right DBS contact electrodes. Both transmit head coils and transmit body coils were analyzed. We found a substantial difference between the SAR and temperature rise at the tip of right and left DBS leads, with the lead contralateral to the implanted pulse generator (IPG) exhibiting up to 7 times higher SAR in simulations, and up to 10 times higher temperature rise during measurements. The orientation of incident electric field with respect to lead trajectories was explored and a metric to predict local SAR amplification was introduced. Modification of the lead trajectory was shown to substantially reduce the heating in phantom experiments using both conductive wires and commercially available DBS leads. Finally, the surgical feasibility of implementing the modified trajectories was demonstrated in a patient operated for bilateral DBS.