Premium
MR coil design for simultaneous tip tracking and curvature delineation of a catheter
Author(s) -
Zuehlsdorff Sven,
Umathum Reiner,
Volz Steffen,
Hallscheidt Peter,
Fink Christian,
Semmler Wolfhard,
Bock Michael
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.20108
Subject(s) - electromagnetic coil , catheter , tracking (education) , imaging phantom , radiofrequency coil , biomedical engineering , signal (programming language) , orientation (vector space) , computer science , materials science , acoustics , nuclear magnetic resonance , physics , optics , radiology , medicine , mathematics , geometry , programming language , psychology , pedagogy , quantum mechanics
In active catheter tracking, small RF coils are attached to the catheter for localization. For interactive catheter steering at vessel branchings, it is necessary to visualize not only a single point near the catheter tip but also the entire shape and orientation of the catheter's distal end. Therefore, a 35‐mm‐long twisted‐pair RF coil was added to a 5 French intravascular catheter with a single tip‐tracking coil. With the use of small nonmagnetic electronic components at the catheter tip, and a special switching circuitry outside the catheter, the coil assembly could be operated in two different modes. During MRI, the tip‐tracking coil was detuned so that the MR signal was received by the visualization coil only. During tracking, detuning was switched off and the MR signal was predominantly received by the more sensitive tracking coil. The catheter was used in combination with a MR pulse sequence with automatic slice positioning so that the current imaging slice was always placed at the position of the catheter tip. Phantom and animal experiments showed that the catheter tip is better visualized with the combined approach than with a tracking coil alone. Magn Reson Med 52:214–218, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.