Heating of non-ferromagnetic total hip endoprostheses during magnetic resonance imaging in an animal model.

To determine the heating effects of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on non-ferromagnetic total hip endoprostheses, hip endoprostheses were tested in vitro and in an ex vivo animal model. The MRI protocol on a 1.5 T scanner consisted of five sequences with a total duration of 23 min. The maximum heating of prosthetic material was 0.17 K in vitro and 0.90 K ex vivo; the maximum heating of bone surrounding tissue was 0.73 K ex vivo. Slight heating of the prostheses and the surrounding tissue was noted, which should not have any side effects in patients with titanium total hip endoprostheses.