Clinical safety of intracranial EEG electrodes in MRI at 1.5 T and 3 T: a single-center experience and literature review.

PURPOSE: Intracranial electroencephalography (EEG) can be a critical part of presurgical evaluation for drug resistant epilepsy. With the increasing use of intracranial EEG, the safety of these electrodes in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment remains a concern, particularly at higher field strengths. However, no studies have reported the MRI safety experience of intracranial electrodes at 3 T. We report an MRI safety review of patients with intracranial electrodes at 1.5 and 3 T. METHODS: One hundred and sixty-five consecutive admissions for intracranial EEG monitoring were reviewed. A total of 184 MRI scans were performed on 135 patients over 140 admissions. These included 118 structural MRI studies at 1.5 T and 66 functional MRI studies at 3 T. The magnetic resonance (MR) protocols avoided the use of high specific energy absorption rate sequences that could result in electrode heating. The intracranial implantations included 114 depth, 15 subdural, and 11 combined subdural and depth electrodes. Medical records were reviewed for patient-reported complications and radiologic complications related to these studies. Pre-implantation, post-implantation, and post-explantation imaging studies were reviewed for potential complications. RESULTS: No adverse events or complications were seen during or after MRI scanning at 1.5 or 3 T apart from those attributed to electrode implantation. There was also no clinical or imaging evidence of worsening of pre-existing implantation-related complications after MR imaging. CONCLUSION: No clinical or radiographic complications are seen when performing MRI scans at 1.5 or 3 T on patients with implanted intracranial EEG electrodes while avoiding high specific energy absorption rate sequences.

Non-Amontons behavior of friction in single contacts.

We report on the frictional properties of a single contact between a glassy polymer lens and a flat silica substrate covered either by a disordered or by a self-assembled alkylsilane monolayer. We find that, in contrast to a widely spread belief, the Amontons proportionality between frictional and normal stresses does not hold. Besides, we observe that the velocity dependence of the sliding stress is strongly sensitive to the structure of the silane layer. Analysis of the frictional rheology observed on both disordered and self-assembled monolayers suggests that dissipation is controlled by the plasticity of a glass-like interfacial layer in the former case, and by pinning of polymer chains on the substrate in the latter one.

Rheological aging and rejuvenation in solid friction contacts.

We study the low-velocity (0.1-100 microm s(-1)) frictional properties of interfaces between a rough glassy polymer and smooth silanized glass, a configuration which gives direct access to the rheology of the adhesive joints in which shear localizes. We show that these joints exhibit the full phenomenology expected for confined quasi-2D soft glasses: they strengthen logarithmically when aging at rest, and weaken (rejuvenate) when sliding. Rejuvenation is found to saturate at large velocities. Moreover, aging at rest is shown to be strongly accelerated when waiting under finite stress below the static threshold.

Jamming creep of a frictional interface.

We measure the displacement response of a frictional multicontact interface between identical polymer glasses to a biased shear force oscillation. We evidence the existence, for maximum forces close below the nominal static threshold, of a jamming creep regime governed by an aging-rejuvenation competition acting within the micrometer-sized contacting asperities. The time dependence of the creep process deviates from the standard Rice-Ruina [J. R. Rice and A. L. Ruina, J. Appl. Mech. 50, 343 (1983)] phenomenology at early times; this suggests the possibility of an aging-rejuvenation competition at much smaller scales, within the nanometer-thick adhesive junctions.

Shear response of a frictional interface to a normal load modulation

We study the shear response of a sliding multicontact interface submitted to a harmonically modulated normal load, without loss of contact. We measure, at low velocities (V<100 &mgr;m s(-1)), the average value &Fmacr; of the friction force and the amplitude of its first and second harmonic components. The excitation frequency (f=120 Hz) is chosen much larger than the natural one, associated with the dynamical aging of the interface. We show the following: (i) In agreement with the engineering thumb rule, even a modest modulation induces a substantial decrease of &Fmacr;. (ii) The Rice-Ruina state and rate model, though appropriate to describe the slow frictional dynamics, must be extended when dealing with our "high" frequency regime. That is, the rheology which controls the shear strength must explicitly account not only for the plastic response of the adhesive junctions between load-bearing asperities, but also for the elastic contribution of the asperities bodies. This "elastoplastic" friction model leads to predictions in excellent quantitative agreement with all our experimental data.