Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009 Nov;30(5):1209-14. doi: 10.1002/jmri.21890.
To design and compare an eight-channel phased array (PA) coil for carotid imaging to an established four-channel PA design at 3T.
An eight-channel PA (8PA) coil was designed specifically for imaging the carotid bifurcation and compared with the existing four-channel (4PA) design using a phantom and by in vivo black-blood magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The 8PA and 4PA were compared in terms of coverage, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR).
The 8PA showed up to 1.7-fold improvement in SNR at a depth of 3.5 cm and greater longitudinal coverage at a given SNR on a phantom. The 8PA showed improved vessel wall SNR for high spatial resolution (0.63 mm(2)) PD, T1, and T2 (1.7, 1.7, 1.6 times, respectively; P <or= 0.002) and improved CNR (1.7, 1.6, 1.5 times, respectively; P <or= 0.002). Ultrahigh-resolution (0.27 mm(2)) T1-weighted images showed better SNR and CNR (1.4 times, P <or= 0.0001) on 8PA compared to 4PA.
Carotid imaging studies may benefit from the improved SNR and larger coverage provided by use of the 8PA.
设计并比较一种用于颈动脉成像的 8 通道相控阵（PA）线圈与 3T 下现有的 4 通道 PA 设计。
专门设计了一种 8 通道 PA（8PA）线圈，用于对颈动脉分叉进行成像，并通过体模和体内黑血磁共振成像（MRI）对其与现有的 4 通道（4PA）设计进行比较。比较了 8PA 和 4PA 在覆盖范围、信噪比（SNR）和对比噪声比（CNR）方面的性能。
在体模上，8PA 在深度为 3.5cm 及以上时 SNR 提高了 1.7 倍，在给定 SNR 时具有更大的纵向覆盖范围。8PA 提高了高空间分辨率（0.63mm²）PD、T1 和 T2 的血管壁 SNR（分别提高了 1.7、1.7 和 1.6 倍；P≤0.002）和 CNR（分别提高了 1.7、1.6 和 1.5 倍；P≤0.002）。与 4PA 相比，超高分辨率（0.27mm²）T1 加权图像在 8PA 上具有更好的 SNR 和 CNR（提高 1.4 倍，P≤0.0001）。
使用 8PA 可以提高 SNR 和覆盖范围，从而使颈动脉成像研究受益。
