
ELECTRIC AND HYDRODYNAMIC PERTURBATIONS RESULTING FROM THE 
FLOW OF BLOOD IN THE PRESENCE OF AN EXTERNAL MAGNETIC FIELD Dima 
ABI-ABDALLAH§, Stéphen OZANNE#, Antoinette BENOIT-de-COIGNAC#, Vincent 
ROBIN&, Odette FOKAPU*, Agnès DROCHON*. 
§Université Paris Sud 11  UMR CNRS 8081   Kremlin-Bicêtre  France 
# ENSEEIHT Toulouse France 
&UTC LMAC and  *UTC UMR CNRS 6600  Compiègne   France 
Corresponding author : agnes.drochon@utc.fr 
 
 
The movement of a conducting fluid, such as the blood, in an externally applied 
magnetic field B0, is governed by the laws of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). When the 
body is subjected to a magnetic field, as it is the case in Magnetic Resonance Imaging 
(MRI), the charged particles of the blood get deflected by the Lorentz force thus inducing 
electrical currents and voltages across the vessel wall and in the surrounding tissues. 
These voltages disturb the electrocardiogram (ECG) detected at the surface of the 
thorax, making the ECG-based image synchronization process inaccurate.  
For a Newtonian incompressible fluid, the MHD equations are defined by a coupling of 
Maxwell’s quasi-static electromagnetic equations and Ohm’s law, on the one hand, and 
the Navier-Stokes equations including the Lorentz force on the other hand. During MRI 
examinations, the largest potentials are induced in the aortic arch, since it is 
perpendicular to the magnetic field and presents the highest flow rate. An optimal 
modelisation of blood flow in that case should thus include the pulsatility of flow, the 
deformability and conductivity of the vessel wall, together with the induced electrostatic 
and electromagnetic fields.  
We addressed this quite complicated problem by studying separately the influence of 
each factor. In [1], we exposed solutions for magnetohydrodynamic flow of blood in the 
case where the vessel is considered as rigid and the flow as stationary, and discuss the 
influence of the wall conductivity and of the induced magnetic field (BI). In [2],  we 
presented a solution for pulsed MHD flow with a somewhat realistic physiological 
pressure wave imposed at the entrance of a rigid non-conducting vessel, with induced BI 
fields neglected (Note that even if BI is very small, the induced currents and voltages 
may be non negligible). The work under progress now [3] aims to include the vessel wall 
deformability by a coupling of fluid equations and equations for the motion of the wall in 
the case of simple sinusoidal flow, non-conducting wall and neglected inductions.  
In all these analytical solutions, it is demonstrated that the presence of the magnetic field 
induces some flow reduction and velocity profile flattening, and that these effects 
heighten when B0 increases. However, in the range of B0 values used in routine MRI (B0 
< 10 Tesla), they remain moderate. The predicted induced potentials on the vessel walls 
and on the thorax surface are in good agreement with the experimentally registered 
ECG perturbations (T-wave elevation). In the study of pulsatile flow of blood in a 
deformable vessel, it is shown that high enough external magnetic fields also influence 
the pulse wave celerity. This result may have practical implications because the 
assessment of Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) by MRI is used as an index of arterial 
stiffness and cardiovascular disease.  
It is also hoped that such analytical solutions may be used to validate the 3D 
computational fluid dynamics codes developed by other groups [4].