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<td><img alt="Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering" width="600" height="171" src="https://www.egr.uh.edu/sites/www.egr.uh.edu/files/enews/2022/images/dissertation1.png">
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<b><span style="font-size:18pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(200,16,46); background-image:initial; background-position:initial; background-size:initial; background-repeat:initial; background-origin:initial; background-clip:initial">The Tissue-reduced
Virtual Family Models for RF-induced Heating Evaluation of Passive Medical Implants at 1.5 T and 3 T
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<strong><span style="font-size:18pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(200,16,46); background-image:initial; background-position:initial; background-size:initial; background-repeat:initial; background-origin:initial; background-clip:initial"> </span></strong><b><span style="font-size:18pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(200,16,46); background-image:initial; background-position:initial; background-size:initial; background-repeat:initial; background-origin:initial; background-clip:initial"></span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:13.5pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; color:black">Meiqi Xia</span></b><span style="font-size:13.5pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:black">April 27, 2022; 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM (CST)<br>
Location: Teams Meeting<br>
Teams: <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19*3ameeting_ZDEyNDNjOGQtYTQ1NC00ODBmLTkyNGEtOTEyYzEzYjM5ZTEy*40thread.v2/0?context=*7b*22Tid*22*3a*22170bbabd-a2f0-4c90-ad4b-0e8f0f0c4259*22*2c*22Oid*22*3a*2206800059-af3c-4348-8ba1-b24116d73485*22*7d__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!LkSTlj0I!AGEK6SPjHau8XzDjn8BC4ptbjibZoFyYUaJSztpkPutv5ZNIvgxK6I0mYTDOqlQ2BEectc__kfEan0bpNkcn$" data-auth="NotApplicable">
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZDEyNDNjOGQtYTQ1NC00ODBmLTkyNGEtOTEyYzEzYjM5ZTEy%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22170bbabd-a2f0-4c90-ad4b-0e8f0f0c4259%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2206800059-af3c-4348-8ba1-b24116d73485%22%7d</a>
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<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:black">Committee Chair:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:black"><br>
Ji Chen, Ph.D.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:black">Committee Members:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:black"><br>
David R. Jackson, Ph.D. | Jiefu Chen, Ph.D. | Benhaddou Driss, Ph.D. | Wolfgang Kainz, Ph.D.</span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(200,16,46)">Abstract</span></b><span style="font-size:12pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:rgb(200,16,46)"></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:black">The RF-induced heating is an important safety concern for patients with implantable medical devices under magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning. The implanted device may lead to a
high-temperature rise near device edges and cause tissue damage. Thus, the RF-induced heating near the device needs to be evaluated properly for the safety of patients. To evaluate the RF-induced heating near the medical implants, the study in ASTM phantom
and human models are adopted. </span><span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:black">To make the experiment in human models more practical, the tissue-reduced virtual family models were proposed for RF-induced heating simulation and possible experiments in the future.
Simplified human body models with a reduced number of tissues were developed using the Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM). Different tissues were grouped into several clusters based on the electrical parameters. Using three human body models (the Duke, the Ella,
and the Obese) from the virtual family, electromagnetic simulations were conducted for original human models and simplified human models under 1.5 T and 3 T MRI systems. The electric field distributions were extracted for comparison.
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<span style="font-size:10.5pt; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; color:black">To investigate the performance of the proposed tissue-reduced virtual family models on RF-induced heating evaluation for the passive device, some representative passive device systems
were implanted in the original virtual family models, tissue-reduced virtual family models, and ASTM phantom for simulation respectively. The studied device systems are the standalone screw system, the pedicle screw system, the plate and screw system, and
the stent system. They were implanted in the clinical positions in the human models and in the fixed position in the ASTM phantom as required by the ASTM standard. The simulated results of specific absorption rate averaged to 1 gram (SAR<sub>1g</sub>) near
the device at 1.5 T and 3 T in the human models and ASTM phantom were extracted for comparison.
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<td><img alt="Engineered For What's Next" width="600" height="82" src="https://www.egr.uh.edu/sites/www.egr.uh.edu/files/enews/2022/images/dissertation2.png"><br>
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