Abstract
MRI at ultra-high field (UHF, ≥7 T) provides a natural strategy for improving the quality of X-nucleus magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging due to the intrinsic benefit of increased signal-to-noise ratio. Considering that RF coils require both local transmission and reception at UHF, the designs of double-tuned coils, which often consist of several layers of transmit and receive resonant elements, become quite complex. A few years ago, a new type of RF coil, ie a dipole antenna, was developed and used for human body and head imaging at UHF. Due to the mechanical and electrical simplicity of dipole antennas, combining an X-nucleus surface loop array with 1H dipoles can substantially simplify the design of a double-tuned UHF human head array coil. Recently, we developed a novel bent folded-end dipole transceiver array for human head imaging at 9.4 T. The new eight-element dipole array demonstrated full brain coverage, and transmit efficiency comparable to that of the substantially more complex 16-element surface loop array. In this work, we developed, constructed and evaluated a double-tuned 13C/1H human head 9.4 T array consisting of eight 13C transceiver surface loops and eight 1H transceiver bent folded-end dipole antennas all placed in a single layer. We showed that interaction between loops and dipoles can be minimized by placing four 1H traps into each 13C loop. The presented double-tuned RF array coil substantially simplifies the design as compared with the common double-tuned surface loop arrays. At the same time, the coil demonstrated an improved 1H longitudinal coverage and good transmit efficiency.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | e4577 |
Journal | NMR in biomedicine |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2021 |
Keywords
- C imaging
- RF head array
- double-tuned coil
- folded-end dipole
- transceiver array
- ultra-high field MRI
- whole-brain coverage
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Molecular Medicine
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
- Spectroscopy