Comparison of an 8-Channel with a 32-Channel Head Coil at 3 Tesla Based on Diffusion-Weighted Imaging with Various b-values: An ACR Phantom Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of 8-channel and 32-channel head coils for 3 Tesla brain single shot spin echo diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with different b-values. All experiments were performed on a 3 Tesla magnetic resonance scanner using an 8-channel and a 32-channel head coils. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values, and image distortions were measured with an American College of Radiology (ACR) head phantom. The SNR and ADC values decreased with increasing b-value, and the distortion and image noise increased. In particular, DWI with a b-value ≥ 2000 showed significant noise and distortion for both coils. In conclusion, the use of 32-channel head coils has advantage for brain DWI compared with 8-channel head coils. However, brain DWI with a b-value ≥ 2000 did not statistically improve SNR on 32-channel coils compared with 8-channel coils, and showed a significant noise and distortion for both coils