A dual-tuned ¹⁷ O/¹ H head array for direct brain oximetry at 3 Tesla

Purpose: To design and build a dual-tuned ¹⁷ O/¹ H coil for direct brain oximetry at 3T.

Methods: A dual-tuned ¹⁷ O/¹ H coil comprising 2 degenerate mode birdcage coils was constructed to facilitate high-sensitivity ¹⁷ O and ¹ H imaging. In vivo ¹⁷ O brain images were acquired in a healthy volunteer using a fermat looped orthogonally encoded trajectories sequence, together with high-resolution structural brain ¹ H images.

Results: Natural abundance ¹⁷ O images with a nominal resolution of 8 mm³ were acquired in under 20 minutes exhibiting clear delineation of the physiological ¹⁷ O distribution. One-millimeter isotropic ¹ H structural brain images demonstrated excellent quality and anatomical detail using routine clinical imaging sequence parameters and parallel acceleration.

Conclusion: A dual-tuned ¹⁷ O/¹ H array was constructed to enable high-sensitivity ¹⁷ O and ¹ H imaging under standard clinical 3 T scanning conditions.