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].