MRI Beyond 1.5T and 3T for Deep Brain Stimulation: Early Safety Data from a Systematic Review

Pre-clinical data suggest DBS hardware heating stays within acceptable limits at ultra-high-field (>3T) and low-field (<1.5T) MRI, and no significant histological damage was seen in vivo at UHF vs. standard fields — but zero human studies exist, so clinical scanning at these str…

• Systematic review of 12 pre-clinical studies (7 UHF, 5 low-field); no human studies were identified — a critical gap limiting any clinical translation.
• In-vitro/in-silico work showed RF energy deposition and DBS hardware heating within clinically acceptable parameters for realistic lead configurations; in-vivo studies found no significant histological damage at UHF vs. 1.5T/3T (exact quantitative thresholds not reported in source).
• Key limitation: absence of human data and heterogeneous scanning sequences across studies; findings provide only a framework for designing future human safety trials, not a basis for changing current practice.

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