Kim Kyoung-Nam, Han Sang-Doc, Seo Jeung-Hoon, Heo Phil, Yoo Dongkyeom, Im Geun Ho, Lee Jung Hee
Center for Molecular and Cellular Imaging, Samsung Biomedical Research Institute.
Department of Health Sciences and Technology, Samsung Advanced Institute for Health Science and Technology, Sungkyunkwan University.
Magn Reson Med Sci. 2017 Jul 10;16(3):253-258. doi: 10.2463/mrms.tn.2016-0149. Epub 2016 Sep 30.
The birdcage (BC) coil is currently being utilized for uniform radiofrequency (RF) transmit/receive (Tx/Rx) or Tx-only configuration in many magnetic resonance (MR) imaging applications, but insufficient magnetic flux (|B|) density and their non-uniform distribution still exists in high-field (HF) environments. We demonstrate that the asymmetric birdcage (ABC) transmit/receive (Tx/Rx) volume coil, which is a modified standard birdcage (SBC) coil with the end ring split into two halves, is suitable for improving the |B| sensitivity in 7T small-animal MR imaging. Cylindrical SBC and ABC coils with 35 mm diameter were constructed and bench tested for mouse body MR imaging at 300 MHz using a 7T scanner. To assess the ABC coil performance, computational electromagnetic (EM) simulation and 7T MR experiment were performed by using a cylindrical phantom and in vivo mouse body and quantitatively compared with the SBC coil in terms of |B| distribution, RF transmit (|B|) field, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The bench measurements of the two BC coils are similar, yielding a quality value (Q-value) of 74.42 for the SBC coil and 77.06 for the ABC coil. The computational calculation results clearly show that the proposed ABC coil offers superior |B| field and |B| field sensitivity in the central axial slice compared with the SBC coil. There was also high SNR and uniformly distributed flip angle (FA) under the loaded condition of mouse body in the 7T experiment. Although ABC geometry allows a further increase in the |B| field and |B| field sensitivity in only the central axial slice, the geometrical modification of the SBC coil can make a high performance RF coil feasible in the central axial slice and also make target imaging possible in the diagonal direction.
鸟笼(BC)线圈目前在许多磁共振(MR)成像应用中用于均匀射频(RF)发射/接收(Tx/Rx)或仅发射配置,但在高场(HF)环境中仍存在磁通密度(|B|)不足及其分布不均匀的问题。我们证明,不对称鸟笼(ABC)发射/接收(Tx/Rx)体线圈,它是一种将端环分成两半的改进型标准鸟笼(SBC)线圈,适用于提高7T小动物MR成像中的|B|灵敏度。构建了直径为35mm的圆柱形SBC和ABC线圈,并使用7T扫描仪在300MHz下对小鼠身体MR成像进行了台架测试。为了评估ABC线圈的性能,使用圆柱形体模和活体小鼠身体进行了计算电磁(EM)模拟和7T MR实验,并在|B|分布、RF发射(|B|)场和信噪比(SNR)方面与SBC线圈进行了定量比较。两个BC线圈的台架测量结果相似,SBC线圈的品质因数(Q值)为74.42,ABC线圈为77.06。计算结果清楚地表明,与SBC线圈相比,所提出的ABC线圈在中心轴向切片中具有更高的|B|场和|B|场灵敏度。在7T实验中,在小鼠身体加载条件下也有高SNR和均匀分布的翻转角(FA)。虽然ABC几何结构仅在中心轴向切片中允许进一步提高|B|场和|B|场灵敏度,但SBC线圈的几何结构修改可以使高性能RF线圈在中心轴向切片中可行,并且还可以在对角线方向进行目标成像。