Safety and reliability of Radio Frequency Identification Devices in Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computed Tomography

Real-Time Person Identification in a Hospital Setting: A Systematic Review

In the critical setting of a trauma team activation, team composition is crucial information that should be accessible at a glance. This calls for a technological solution, which are widely available, that allows access to the whereabouts of personnel. This diversity presents decision makers and users with many choices and considerations. The aim of this review is to give a comprehensive overview of available real-time person identification techniques and their respective characteristics. A systematic literature review was performed to create an overview of identification techniques that have been tested in medical settings or already have been implemented in clinical practice. These techniques have been investigated on a total of seven characteristics: costs, usability, accuracy, response time, hygiene, privacy, and user safety. The search was performed on 11 May 2020 in PubMed and the Web of Science Core Collection. PubMed and Web of Science yielded a total n = 265 and n = 228 records, respectively. The review process resulted in n = 23 included records. A total of seven techniques were identified: (a) active and (b) passive Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) based systems, (c) fingerprint, (d) iris, and (e) facial identification systems and infrared (IR) (f) and ultrasound (US) (g) based systems. Active RFID was largely documented in the included literature. Only a few could be found about the passive systems. Biometric (c, d, and e) technologies were described in a variety of applications. IR and US techniques appeared to be a niche, as they were only spoken of in few (n = 3) studies.

On Emerging Technology: What to Know When Your Patient Has a Microchip in His Hand

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology uses an antenna to respond to an incoming signal by sending an outgoing message. This technology has been in use for over 50 years and is common in daily activities such as tapping a credit card to a reader, swiping an ID badge to open a door, paying highway tolls, and operating keyless entry cars. This technology can be implanted, such as in the microchips used to identify domestic pets. Since 1998, RFID chips have also been implanted in humans. This practice is little studied but appears to be increasing; rice-sized implants are implanted by hobbyists and even offered by some employers for uses ranging from access to emergency medical records to entry to secured workstations. These implants are of special concern to hand surgeons because they are most commonly placed in the subcutaneous dorsal first web space. The US Food and Drug Administration first approved this technology in 2004, with stated potential risks including adverse tissue reaction, migration of the implanted transponder, compromise of information security, electrical hazards, and magnetic resonance imaging incompatibility. Here, we explain implanted RFID technology, its potential uses, and what is and is not known about its safety. We present images of a patient with an RFID chip who presented to our clinic for acute metacarpal and phalangeal fractures, to demonstrate the clinical and radiographic appearance of these chips.

Breast Tissue Expander With Radiofrequency Identification Port: Assessment of MRI Issues

OBJECTIVE. Breast tissue expanders with magnetic ports are MRI unsafe, preventing patients from benefiting from the diagnostic capabilities of MRI. A tissue expander was recently developed with a radiofrequency identification (RFID) port used for needle location and expansion that may be acceptable for a patient undergoing MRI. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate MRI issues using standardized techniques and well-accepted methods for this tissue expander with RFID port. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The breast tissue expander with RFID port (Motiva Flora Tissue Expander, Establishment Labs) was assessed for magnetic field interactions (translational attraction and torque, 3 T), MRI-related heating (1.5 T/64 MHz and 3 T/128 MHz), artifacts (3 T), and functional changes associated with different MRI conditions (1.5 T/64 MHz and 3 T/128 MHz). RESULTS. Magnetic field interactions were minor (deflection angle of 2° and no torque) and thus will not pose a risk. At 1.5 T/64 MHz and 3 T/128 MHz, the highest temperature elevations (1.7°C and 1.9°C, respectively) were physiologically inconsequential. The tissue expander with RFID port exhibited relatively small artifacts on MRI. Exposures of the tissue expander with RFID port to different MRI conditions did not impact the ability to localize the RFID port or to read the electronic serial number. CONCLUSION. The findings indicated that this tissue expander with RFID port is "MR Conditional" for a patient referred for MRI at 1.5 T or 3 T. Importantly, the relatively small artifact associated with this implant offers potential advantages for patients undergoing MRI compared with tissue expanders that have magnetic ports that create substantial signal losses and distortions on MR images.

RFID-Based Real-Time Navigation for Interventional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Development and Evaluation of a Novel Tracking System

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the suitability of a novel radio-frequency identification (RFID)-based tracking system for intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A RFID tracking system was modified to fulfill MRI-compatibility and tested according to ASTM and NEMA. The influence of the RFID tracking system on MRI was analyzed in a phantom study using a half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbospin echo (HASTE) and true fast imaging with steady-state precession sequence (TrueFISP) sequence. The RFID antenna was gradually moved closer to the isocenter of the MR scanner from 90 to 210 cm to investigate the influence of the distance. Furthermore, the RF was gradually changed between 865 and 869 MHz for a distance of 90 cm, 150 cm, and 210 cm to the isocenter of the magnet to investigate the influence of the frequency. The specific spatial resolution was measured with and without a permanent line of sight (LOS). After the modification of the reader, no significant change of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) could be observed with increasing distance of the RFID tracking system to the isocenter of the MR scanner. Also, different radio frequencies of the RFID tracking system did not influence the SNR of the MR-images significantly. The specific spatial resolution deviated on average by 8.97 ± 7.33 mm with LOS and 11.23 ± 12.03 mm without LOS from the reference system. The RFID tracking system had no relevant influence on the MR-image quality. RFID tracking solved the LOS problem. However, the spatial accuracy of the RFID tracking system has to be improved for medical usage.

Application safety evaluation of the radio frequency identification tag under magnetic resonance imaging

Background

Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) has been widely used in healthcare facilities, but it has been paid little attention whether RFID applications are safe enough under healthcare environment. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of RFID tags on Magnetic Resonance (MR) imaging in a typical electromagnetic environment in hospitals, and to evaluate the safety of their applications.

Methods

A Magphan phantom was used to simulate the imaging objects, while active RFID tags were placed at different distances (0, 4, 8, 10 cm) from the phantom border. The phantom was scanned by using three typical sequences including spin-echo (SE) sequence, gradient-echo (GRE) sequence and inversion-recovery (IR) sequence. The quality of the image was quantitatively evaluated by using signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), uniformity, high-contrast resolution, and geometric distortion. RFID tags were read by an RFID reader to calculate their usable rate.

Results

RFID tags can be read properly after being placed in high magnetic field for up to 30 minutes. SNR: There were no differences between the group with RFID tags and the group without RFID tags using SE and IR sequence, but it was lower when using GRE sequence.Uniformity: There was a significant difference between the group with RFID tags and the group without RFID tags using SE and GRE sequence. Geometric distortion and high-contrast resolution: There were no obvious differences found.

Conclusions

Active RFID tags can affect MR imaging quality, especially using the GRE sequence. Increasing the distance from the RFID tags to the imaging objects can reduce that influence. When the distance was longer than 8 cm, MR imaging quality were almost unaffected. However, the Gradient Echo related sequence is not recommended when patients wear a RFID wristband.

Assessment of safety and interference issues of radio frequency identification devices in 0.3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography

The objective of this study was to evaluate two issues regarding magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including device functionality and image artifacts for the presence of radio frequency identification devices (RFID) in association with 0.3 Tesla at 12.7 MHz MRI and computed tomography (CT) scanning. Fifteen samples of RFID tags with two different sizes (wristband and ID card types) were tested. The tags were exposed to several MR-imaging conditions during MRI examination and X-rays of CT scan. Throughout the test, the tags were oriented in three different directions (axial, coronal, and sagittal) relative to MRI system in order to cover all possible situations with respect to the patient undergoing MRI and CT scanning, wearing a RFID tag on wrist. We observed that the tags did not sustain physical damage with their functionality remaining unaffected even after MRI and CT scanning, and there was no alternation in previously stored data as well. In addition, no evidence of either signal loss or artifact was seen in the acquired MR and CT images. Therefore, we can conclude that the use of this passive RFID tag is safe for a patient undergoing MRI at 0.3 T/12.7 MHz and CT Scanning.

Deployment of RFID in healthcare facilities-experimental design in MRI department

Patient safety has become an important issue due to medical errors. Some health care systems use Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to identify patients during medical procedures. However, the RFID data readability especially depends upon the environment, an investigation of data reliability and signal loss is essential to making an effective deployment plan. The operation of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the major source of electromagnetic interference in the hospital. Therefore, this research conducts an experimental design of reading performance considering various notable factors in the MRI department. In addition to the readability experiment, this paper also measures the efficiency and reliability of implementing RFID technology in the MRI department using a simulation approach and helps hospitals by providing the measured outcomes.

Evaluation of magnetic resonance safety of veterinary radiofrequency identification devices at 1 T

Implants containing metallic components have the potential to become heated or move within the patient while in the magnetic resonance (MR) environment. Despite containing a ferromagnetic core and having been in use for over 20 years, no information is available on the safety of veterinary radiofrequency identification devices during MR examinations. These devices are the most commonly encountered metallic implants in dogs and cats undergoing MR imaging. Three commercial veterinary microchips were evaluated for safety in the MR environment at 1 T. Parameters tested were translational force, torque, heating, artifact production, and function. Translation and torque were larger than that expected from normal activity under normal gravity. No significant heating was observed. Signal void artifacts may affect diagnosis if they are too close to the area of clinical importance. Microchip function was unaffected by routine clinical MR imaging. Capsule formation around devices is a major factor in counteracting translation and torque. Our findings support that is acceptable for patients to undergo MR imaging with this 1 T system following an interval of 3 months postimplantation to allow capsule growth. Because of the complex interactions involved, these observations may not be translatable to MR scanners of different field strength and/or manufacturer. Further safety testing of these and other radiofrequency identification devices is therefore recommended at different field strengths and equipment specifications.