RF shimming in the cervical spinal cord at 7 T.

Abstract

Advancing the development of 7 T MRI for spinal cord imaging is crucial for the enhanced diagnosis and monitoring of various neurodegenerative diseases and traumas. However, a significant challenge at this field strength is the transmit field inhomogeneity. Such inhomogeneity is particularly problematic for imaging the small, deep anatomical structures of the cervical spinal cord, as it can cause uneven signal intensity and elevate the local specific absorption ratio, compromising image quality. This multisite study explores several RF shimming techniques in the cervical spinal cord. Data were collected from 5 participants between two 7 T sites with a custom 8Tx/20Rx parallel transmission coil. We explored two radiofrequency (RF) shimming approaches from an MRI vendor and four from an open-source toolbox, showcasing their ability to enhance transmit field and signal homogeneity along the cervical spinal cord. The circularly polarized (CP), coefficient of variation (CoV), and specific absorption rate (SAR) efficiency shim modes showed the highest B1 + efficiency, and the vendor-based "patient" and "volume" modes showed the lowest B1 + efficiency. The coefficient of variation method produced the highest CSF/spinal cord contrast on T2*-weighted scans (ratio of 1.27 ± 0.03), and the lowest variation of that contrast along the superior-inferior axis. The study's findings highlight the potential of RF shimming to advance 7 T MRI's clinical utility for central nervous system imaging by enabling more homogenous and efficient spinal cord imaging. Additionally, the research incorporates a reproducible Jupyter Notebook, enhancing the study's transparency and facilitating peer verification.