Parsa J, Mohammadzadeh M
Department of Energy Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran 1458889694, Iran.
Radiation in Medicine Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran 1983969411, Iran.
Rev Sci Instrum. 2019 Nov 1;90(11):114707. doi: 10.1063/1.5114813.
Radiofrequency coils provide high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of human tissues. A small RF coil produces MR images with a higher resolution compared to the commercial volume MR coils from mass limited samples. Signal to noise ratio (SNR) plays a key role in the optimal design of receiver radiofrequency coils. In this work, we present a three-loop saddle coil suitable for MR imaging of digits of the human body. The geometry of the introduced coil is optimized to achieve the highest SNR. The coil performance is evaluated through comparing the measured SNR maps of the optimal coil derived from MR images of a saline phantom with the corresponding measured SNR maps of a commercial head coil in axial and sagittal slices. Results verify that the image SNR of the introduced coil is 3.4 times higher than that of the head coil and 2 times higher than that of the similar saddle coils represented in the literature recently. To validate the measured results, SNR maps of the introduced saddle and head coils were simulated and their SNR difference was compared with the corresponding measured data of the two coils. Results show that the simulated and measured data are in agreement with less than 11.8% error.
射频线圈可提供人体组织的高分辨率磁共振（MR）成像。与来自质量受限样本的商用体部MR线圈相比，小型射频线圈能产生分辨率更高的MR图像。信噪比（SNR）在接收射频线圈的优化设计中起着关键作用。在这项工作中，我们展示了一种适用于人体手指MR成像的三回路鞍形线圈。所引入线圈的几何形状经过优化，以实现最高的信噪比。通过比较从盐水体模的MR图像得出的最佳线圈的测量信噪比图与商用头部线圈在轴向和矢状面切片中的相应测量信噪比图，来评估线圈性能。结果证实，所引入线圈的图像信噪比是头部线圈的3.4倍，比最近文献中报道的类似鞍形线圈高2倍。为验证测量结果，对所引入的鞍形线圈和头部线圈的信噪比图进行了模拟，并将它们的信噪比差异与两个线圈的相应测量数据进行比较。结果表明，模拟数据与测量数据相符，误差小于11.8%。
