Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, AA Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, Massachusetts 02129, USA.
Magn Reson Med. 2011 Dec;66(6):1777-87. doi: 10.1002/mrm.22961. Epub 2011 Jun 7.
Size-optimized 32-channel receive array coils were developed for five age groups, neonates, 6 months old, 1 year old, 4 years old, and 7 years old, and evaluated for pediatric brain imaging. The array consisted of overlapping circular surface coils laid out on a close-fitting coil-former. The two-section coil former design was obtained from surface contours of aligned three-dimensional MRI scans of each age group. Signal-to-noise ratio and noise amplification for parallel imaging were evaluated and compared to two coils routinely used for pediatric brain imaging; a commercially available 32-channel adult head coil and a pediatric-sized birdcage coil. Phantom measurements using the neonate, 6-month-old, 1-year-old, 4-year-old, and 7-year-old coils showed signal-to-noise ratio increases at all locations within the brain over the comparison coils. Within the brain cortex the five dedicated pediatric arrays increased signal-to-noise ratio by up to 3.6-, 3.0-, 2.6-, 2.3-, and 1.7-fold, respectively, compared to the 32-channel adult coil, as well as improved G-factor maps for accelerated imaging. This study suggests that a size-tailored approach can provide significant sensitivity gains for accelerated and unaccelerated pediatric brain imaging.
针对五个年龄段（新生儿、6 个月、1 岁、4 岁和 7 岁），我们开发了优化尺寸的 32 通道接收阵列线圈，并用于儿科脑成像。该阵列由放置在紧密贴合的线圈成型器上的重叠圆形表面线圈组成。两节式线圈成型器设计是从每个年龄段的对齐三维 MRI 扫描的表面轮廓获得的。我们评估并比较了并行成像的信噪比和噪声放大，与两种常用于儿科脑成像的线圈；一种是市售的 32 通道成人头部线圈，另一种是儿科鸟笼线圈。使用新生儿、6 个月、1 岁、4 岁和 7 岁线圈的体模测量结果表明，与比较线圈相比，大脑内所有位置的信噪比都有所提高。在大脑皮层中，五个专用儿科阵列与 32 通道成人线圈相比，分别提高了 3.6 倍、3.0 倍、2.6 倍、2.3 倍和 1.7 倍的信噪比，并改善了加速成像的 G 因子图。本研究表明，尺寸定制方法可以为加速和非加速儿科脑成像提供显著的灵敏度增益。
