Spiral Scan Peripheral Nerve Stimulation

Time‐varying magnetic fields induce electric fields that can cause physiological stimulation. Stimulation has been empirically characterized as a function of dB/dt and duration based on experiments using trapezoidal and sinusoidal gradient waveforms with constant ramp time, amplitude, and direction. For two‐dimensional (2D) spiral scans, the readout gradient waveforms are frequency‐ and amplitude‐modulated sinusoids on two orthogonal axes in quadrature. The readout gradient waveform therefore rotates with amplitude and angular velocity that are generally not constant. It does not automatically follow that spiral stimulation thresholds can be predicted using available stimulation models. We scanned 18 normal volunteers with a 2D spiral scan and measured global thresholds for axial, sagittal, and coronal planes. We concluded that the stimulation model evaluated accurately predicts slew rate‐limited spiral mean stimulation thresholds, if the effective ramp time is chosen to be the half‐period at the end of the spiral readout. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2000;12:164–170. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.