From Toshiba America Medical Systems Inc.;
VISART™ series is a 1.5 Tesla superconducting MRI system that has been designed to meet the expanding role of MRI in today's clinical environment. The system utilizes innovative technologies such as digital RF, high speed actively shielded gradients and optimized RF coils, which support a wide range of MRI developments. The Visart, an early type of Toshiba Medical Systems Inc., can be retrofitted or upgraded to the Excelart configuration.

(BASG) The spoiled steady state acquisition rewinded gradient echo sequence with balanced waveform.

See Steady State Free Precession, Gradient Echo Sequence and Balanced Sequence.

Most of the commonly used intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD) do not move under the influence of the magnetic field, do not heat up during sequences usually applied for pelvic imaging, and do not produce major artifacts in vitro or in vivo.

Thus, patients with either all plastic or copper IUDs can be safely imaged with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.

(SAR) The Specific Absorption Rate is defined as the RF power absorbed per unit of mass of an object, and is measured in watts per kilogram (W/kg).
The SAR describes the potential for heating of the patient's tissue due to the application of the RF energy necessary to produce the MR signal. Inhomogeneity of the RF field leads to a local exposure where most of the absorbed energy is applied to one body region rather than the entire person, leading to the concept of a local SAR. Hot spots may occur in the exposed tissue, to avoid or at least minimize effects of such theoretical complications, the frequency and the power of the radio frequency irradiation should be kept at the lowest possible level. Averaging over the whole body leads to the global SAR.
It increases with field strength, radio frequency power and duty cycle, transmitter-coil type and body size. The doubling of the field strength from 1.5 Tesla (1.5T) to 3 Tesla (3T) leads to a quadrupling of SAR. In high and ultrahigh fields, some of the multiple echo, multiple-slice pulse sequences may create a higher SAR than recommended by the agencies. SAR can be reduced by lower flip angle and longer repetition times, which could potentially affect image contrast.
Normally no threatening increase in temperature could be shown. Even in high magnetic fields, the local temperature increases not more than 1°C. 2.1°C is the highest measured increase in skin temperature. Eddy currents may heat up implants and thus may cause local heating.

FDA SAR limits:

IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) SAR limits of some European countries:
All limits are averaged over 6 minutes. (For more details: IEC 60601-2-33 (2002))

In most countries standard MRI systems are limited to a maximum SAR of 4 W/kg, so most scanning in level II is impossible.
For Level I, in addition to routine monitoring, particular caution must be exercised for patients who are sensitive to temperature increases or to RF energy.
For Japan different SAR limits are valid.

Duty cycle is the time during which the gradient system can be run at maximum power. The duty cycle is based on the total time and includes the cool down phase. The duty cycle on the RF pulse during MRI is restricted based on the specific absorption rate (SAR) limit.
SAR limits restrict radio frequency heating effects. The specific absorption rate increases with field strength, radio frequency power and duty cycle, type of the transmitter coil and body size. The especially in high and ultrahigh magnetic fields, important SAR issue can be readily addressed by reducing the RF duty cycle due to longer repetition times (TR) and the use of parallel imaging techniques. A TR longer than the minimum needed provides time for the tissue to cool down, but for the cost of a longer scan time. A parallel imaging technique reduces the RF exposure and the scan time.

See also High Field MRI.