Mid-Range Coil Array for Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Small Animals

Journal Article · Mon Aug 11 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2979256· OSTI ID:21149259

Solis, S E ^[1]; Tomasi, D; Rodriguez, A O ^[2]

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1. Centro de Investigacion e Instrumentacion e Imagenologia Medica, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana Iztapalapa, Mexico, DF 09340 (Mexico)
2. Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973 (United States)

The vast majority of articles on MRI RF coils over the past two decades have focused on large coils, where sample losses dominate, or on micro-coils, where sample and capacitor losses are negligible. Few have addressed the mid-range coils, seen in the majority of small-animal applications, where all the sources of loss are important, for example, mouse brain and body coils from 125 to 750 MHz. We developed a four-saddle coil array for magnetic resonance imaging of small animals. The saddle coil elements in the array were evenly distributed to cover the rat's head. The coil array was tuned to the resonant frequency of 170 MHz. Due to the close proximity of the coil elements, it was necessary to decouple the coil array using nonmagnetic trimmers and, it was operated in the transceiver mode and quadrature-driven. To test the coil array performance at high field, phantom images were acquired with our saddle coil array and standard pulse sequences on a research-dedicated 4 Tesla scanner. Ex vivo brain images of a rat were also acquired, and proved the feasibility of the scaled version of a saddle coil array and, its compatibility with standard pulse sequences when used in a high field magnetic resonance imager.

• OSTI ID: 21149259
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 1032; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE
BRAIN
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
HEAD
IMAGES
MAGNET COILS
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MHZ RANGE
NMR IMAGING
NUCLEAR MEDICINE
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PHANTOMS
PULSES
RATS