An improved quadrature or phased-array coil for MR cardiac imaging.

A tailored receive-only coil for cardiac imaging has been designed. The coil consists of two overlapping coil elements and can be used either as a quadrature surface coil or as a phased-array coil. Through phantom experiments and images of the heart, the authors have shown that the improved cardiac coil provided a signal-to-noise ratio 1.6 times higher than a conventional quadrature spine coil, 1.4 times higher than that of a single coil (having the same shape and total dimension), and three times higher than the body coil at the depth of the posterior wall of the heart. The authors have also shown that the cardiac coil improved image quality everywhere in the heart. This coil will enhance routine clinical cardiac studies as well as other examinations such as myocardial perfusion, wall motion, and coronary artery imaging.