Institute of Medical Physics and Radiation Protection, Department of Life Science Engineering, TH Mittelhessen University of Applied Sciences, Giessen, Germany.
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and McGovern Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Magn Reson Med. 2021 Sep;86(3):1773-1785. doi: 10.1002/mrm.28791. Epub 2021 Apr 8.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during infancy poses challenges due to practical, methodological, and analytical considerations. The aim of this study was to implement a hardware-related approach to increase subject compliance for fMRI involving awake infants. To accomplish this, we designed, constructed, and evaluated an adaptive 32-channel array coil.
To allow imaging with a close-fitting head array coil for infants aged 1-18 months, an adjustable head coil concept was developed. The coil setup facilitates a half-seated scanning position to improve the infant's overall scan compliance. Earmuff compartments are integrated directly into the coil housing to enable the usage of sound protection without losing a snug fit of the coil around the infant's head. The constructed array coil was evaluated from phantom data using bench-level metrics, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performances, and accelerated imaging capabilities for both in-plane and simultaneous multislice (SMS) reconstruction methodologies. Furthermore, preliminary fMRI data were acquired to evaluate the in vivo coil performance.
Phantom data showed a 2.7-fold SNR increase on average when compared with a commercially available 32-channel head coil. At the center and periphery regions of the infant head phantom, the SNR gains were measured to be 1.25-fold and 3-fold, respectively. The infant coil further showed favorable encoding capabilities for undersampled k-space reconstruction methods and SMS techniques.
An infant-friendly head coil array was developed to improve sensitivity, spatial resolution, accelerated encoding, motion insensitivity, and subject tolerance in pediatric MRI. The adaptive 32-channel array coil is well-suited for fMRI acquisitions in awake infants.
由于实际情况、方法和分析方面的考虑，婴儿期的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）存在挑战。本研究旨在实施一种与硬件相关的方法，以提高涉及清醒婴儿的 fMRI 的受试者顺应性。为此，我们设计、构建和评估了一种自适应 32 通道阵列线圈。
为了能够对 1-18 个月大的婴儿进行贴合紧密的头部阵列线圈成像，我们开发了一种可调节的头部线圈概念。该线圈设置允许半坐姿扫描位置，从而提高婴儿的整体扫描顺应性。耳罩隔间直接集成到线圈外壳中，从而可以在不失去线圈贴合婴儿头部的情况下使用声音保护。使用基于工作台的指标、信噪比（SNR）性能以及平面内和同时多切片（SMS）重建方法的加速成像能力，从体模数据评估构建的阵列线圈。此外，还采集了初步的 fMRI 数据来评估体内线圈性能。
与商用 32 通道头部线圈相比，体模数据平均显示 SNR 增加了 2.7 倍。在婴儿头部体模的中心和周边区域，SNR 增益分别测量为 1.25 倍和 3 倍。该婴儿线圈进一步显示出对欠采样 k 空间重建方法和 SMS 技术的有利编码能力。
开发了一种适合婴儿使用的头部线圈阵列，以提高儿科 MRI 中的灵敏度、空间分辨率、加速编码、运动不敏感性和受试者耐受性。自适应 32 通道阵列线圈非常适合清醒婴儿的 fMRI 采集。
