Safety of MRI in patients with retained cardiac leads.

Purpose: To evaluate the safety of MRI in patients with fragmented retained leads (FRLs) through numerical simulation and phantom experiments.

Methods: Electromagnetic and thermal simulations were performed to determine the worst-case RF heating of 10 patient-derived FRL models during MRI at 1.5 T and 3 T and at imaging landmarks corresponding to head, chest, and abdomen.