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Whole brain 31 P MRSI at 7T with a dual‐tuned receive array
Author(s) -
Rowland Benjamin C.,
Driver Ian D.,
Tachrount Mohamed,
Klomp Dennis W. J.,
Rivera Debra,
Forner Ria,
Pham Anh,
Italiaander Michel,
Wise Richard G.
Publication year - 2020
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.27953
Subject(s) - electromagnetic coil , radiofrequency coil , imaging phantom , homogeneous , pulse (music) , nuclear magnetic resonance , signal (programming language) , biomedical engineering , computer science , materials science , physics , optics , medicine , quantum mechanics , detector , programming language , thermodynamics
Purpose The design and performance of a novel head coil setup for31 P spectroscopy at ultra‐high field strengths (7T) is presented. The described system supports measurements at both the1 H and31 P resonance frequencies. Methods The novel coil consists of 2, actively detunable, coaxial birdcage coils to give homogeneous transmit, combined with a double resonant 30 channel receive array. This allows for anatomical imaging combined with31 P acquisitions over the whole head, without changing coils or disturbing the subject. A phosphate buffer phantom and 3 healthy volunteers were scanned with a pulse acquire CSI sequence using both the novel array coil and a conventional transceiver birdcage. Four different methods of combining the array channels were compared at 3 different levels of SNR. Results The novel coil setup delivers significantly increased31 P SNR in the peripheral regions of the brain, reaching up to factor 8, while maintaining comparable performance relative to the birdcage in the center. Conclusions The new system offers the potential to acquire whole brain31 P MRSI with superior signal relative to the standard options.