Simultaneous whole‐brain and cervical spine imaging at 7 T using a neurovascular head and neck coil with 8‐channel transceiver array and 56‐channel receiver array

Abstract Purpose To develop a 7T neurovascular head and neck (NVHN) coil with an extended longitudinal coverage of the brain and cervical spine, with eight transceiver (TxRx) channels and 56 receive (Rx) channels for dynamic parallel‐transmit (pTx) applications. Methods A dual‐row transceiver array with six elements in the upper row and two elements in the lower row was designed using combined electromagnetic and circuit optimization and constructed. A 56Rx array covering the brain and cervical spine was designed and combined with the transceiver array. The performance of the 8TxRx56Rx NVHN coil such asB 1 + $$ {\mathrm{B}}_1^{+} $$ , signal‐to‐noise ratio, and g‐factor were validated in phantom and in vivo studies and compared with an in‐house 8Tx64Rx head coil. High‐resolution in vivo images were acquired with the NVHN and head coil. Results The averageB 1 + $$ {\mathrm{B}}_1^{+} $$ in phantom while exciting the upper six channels and all eight channels are 43.45 nT/V and 45.80 nT/V, respectively, demonstrating that the availableB 1 + $$ {\mathrm{B}}_1^{+} $$ field is seamlessly distributed in the brain and/or cervical spine, depending on the chosen excitation. The 8TxRx56Rx NVHN coil increases the SNR in the cervical spine and central brain by a factor of 2.18 and 1.16, respectively, compared with the 8Tx64Rx head coil. Furthermore, it demonstrates similar 1/g‐factor performance for acceleration factors up to 5 × 5 compared with the head coil and provides diagnostic‐quality images of the brain and spinal cord in a single acquisition. Conclusion The extended longitudinal coverage of the NVHN coil promises to improve the clinical application of the current generation of pTx 7T MRI systems with 8Tx channels.