1 H / 23 Na dual-tuned RF Unicoil for human body MR imaging at 3 T

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Kim, Kyue D. Moon, Chuldong Park, B-W. Park, Hyo Jin Bae, Kyung Taek
Copyright Year	2009
Abstract	[Introduction] When a radio frequency (RF) coil is designed and built for MR imaging, its performance is judged on the basis of achieving uniform imaging B1field and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, there is an intrinsic trade-off between B1-field uniformity and high SNR in the configuration of RF coil; a large RF coil tends to generate a more uniform B1-field but lower SNR, because it collects a greater amount of RF noise from the volume it illuminates . Coils designed to balance this trade-off is a surface receive (Rx) coil array combined with volume transmit (Tx) coil that produces a high SNR and uniform field distribution. In this Rx/Tx coil configuration, the size of Rx coil is determined by that of Tx coil; typically smaller than Tx. This restriction is problematic in body imaging since adequate RF depth penetration is required to achieve a high SNR deep in the body. Particularly, the problem can be exaggerated in sodium MR imaging because the SNR is low due to an inherently low biological sodium concentration and low MR sensitivity. Therefore, to improve the performance of a surface-volume Rx/Tx coil for Na body imaging at 3T, we have developed a ‘Unicoil’ where one Tx and four Rx’s were integrated into a single coil to maximize the size of Rx to the same dimension as Tx. Finally, the Na coil and H coil were combined and operated in a dual-tune mode.
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Alternate Webpage(s)	http://cds.ismrm.org/protected/10MProceedings/files/3837_5861.pdf
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article