SAR simulation and the effect of mode coupling in a birdcage resonator

The issues related to the simulation of specific absorption rate (SAR) in a high frequency magnetic resonance coil are discussed in this work. Using simulation results, it is shown that the effect of the nonimaging modes on SAR can be substantial and thus must be taken into account. Also a technique for the estimation of SAR for coils with complicated geometry is presented. The presented technique will be useful in cases where the conventional finite difference time domain simulation is not practical because of large memory requirement and/or excessively long computation time. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson Part B (Magn Reson Engineering) 31B: 133–139, 2007