Efficient high-frequency body coil for high-field MRI

Magn Reson Med. 2004 Oct;52(4):851-9. doi: 10.1002/mrm.20177.

Abstract

The use of body coils is favored for homogeneous excitation, and such coils are often paired with surface coils or arrays for sensitive reception in many MRI applications. While the body coil's physical size and resultant electrical length make this circuit difficult to design for any field strength, recent efforts to build efficient body coils for applications at 3T and above have been especially challenging. To meet this challenge, we developed an efficient new transverse electromagnetic (TEM) body coil and demonstrated its use in human studies at field strengths up to 4 T. Head, body, and breast images were acquired within peak power constraints of <8 kW. Bench studies indicate that these body coils are feasible to 8 T. RF shimming was used to remove a high-field-related cardiac imaging artifact in these preliminary studies. P41RR13230

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Equipment Design
  • Humans
  • Image Enhancement / instrumentation*
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / instrumentation