Magnetic Susceptibility of Common Metals and Alloys Used in Medical Devices

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a widely used imaging modality that is ideally suited for imaging soft tissues. The use of strong magnetic and electric fields employed in MRI creates the potential for hazards when imaging patients with metallic implants. With the proper material selection, implant design, and imaging procedure, many of these hazards can be adequately managed. Magnetic susceptibility (chi) is a material property indicating a material's tendency to interact with and distort an applied magnetic field, and it has substantial influence on both the force and torque experienced by an implant in a magnetic field, as well as the size of the image artifact. In this study, the magnetic susceptibilities of 45 different medically relevant alloys and alloy composites are determined and reported. This data will aid in material selection for medical devices intended to be labeled as MR Conditional.