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Inductively coupled rf coils for examinations of small animals and objects in standard whole‐body MR scanners
Author(s) -
Graf Hansjörg,
Martirosian Petros,
Schick Fritz,
Grieser Marco,
Bellemann Matthias E.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.473
H-Index - 180
eISSN - 2473-4209
pISSN - 0094-2405
DOI - 10.1118/1.1576227
Subject(s) - dosimetry , nuclear medicine , radio frequency , physics , nuclear magnetic resonance , medical physics , biomedical engineering , medicine , computer science , telecommunications
Inductively coupled solenoid coils fitting to objects in the size of mice or rats were developed to adapt modern whole‐body MR scanners featuring sufficient gradient strength for animal examinations with high spatial resolution. Homogenous receiver characteristics is achievable over almost the whole inner region of the solenoid coils. The SNR can be increased by a factor 2 to 6 with the adapting coils for examinations using the head coil as connected receiver. Standard sequences on clinical 1.5 T scanners can be applied with adapted transmitter voltages. For example, a SNR value of about 30 is achievable in a mouse liver after 10 minutes measuring time using a 2‐D spin echo imaging sequence and a size of 0.3 × 0.3 × 0.8 mm 3for the picture elements.