Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this work is the design, implementation and evaluation of a mechanically flexible receive-only coil array for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 3 T that can be applied to various target organs and provides high parallel imaging performance.MethodsA 23-channel array was designed based on a rigid-flex printed circuit board (PCB). The flexible multi-layer part contains the copper traces forming the coil elements. The rigid part of the PCB houses the solder joints and lumped elements. The coil housing consists of rigid caps mounted above the rigid parts. Adhesive PTFE sheets cover all flexible parts. The developed array was tested on the bench as well as in phantom and in vivo MRI experiments employing parallel imaging acceleration factors up to six.ResultsEfficient mutual decoupling between receive elements and detuning between receive array and body coil was achieved. An increased signal-to-noise ratio in comparison to commercial reference coils is demonstrated, especially in regions close to the developed array and for high parallel imaging acceleration factors. Exemplary in vivo images of head, ankle, knee, shoulder and hand are presented.ConclusionBased on high sensitivity close to the array and low g-factors, this flexible coil is well suited for studies of occipital and temporal cortex, as well as musculoskeletal targets like knee, ankle, elbow and wrist.
Highlights
The interest in mechanically flexible RF coil arrays [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] has grown rapidly in the MR community
Based on high sensitivity close to the array and low g-factors, this flexible coil is well suited for studies of occipital and temporal cortex, as well as musculoskeletal targets like knee, ankle, elbow and wrist
A flexible array is characterized by reduced inter-patient variation of Q-factor, matching, and decoupling performance because loading of each individual element is kept approximately constant by form-fitting the array to the sample
Summary
The interest in mechanically flexible RF coil arrays [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8] has grown rapidly in the MR community. The SNR increase originates from a higher filling factor and a higher achievable ratio of unloaded to loaded quality factor when the coil is closely form-fitted to the sample. A flexible array is characterized by reduced inter-patient variation of Q-factor, matching, and decoupling performance because loading of each individual element is kept approximately constant by form-fitting the array to the sample. When the diameter of the individual elements is small compared to the bending diameter, element tuning is barely influenced by the bending. The combination of these properties ensures a robustly high coil performance even for large variations in patient size. Patient comfort can be increased by using mechanically flexible RF coils
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