Abstract
In ultra-low-field magnetic resonance imaging (ULF MRI), measured resonance signals oscillate at Larmor frequencies around 1kHz compared to even above 100MHz in high-field MRI. Thus, detection by induction coils in ULF MRI is not feasible, whereas superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensors can measure these femtotesla-level signals. The signal-to-noise ratio is enhanced by prepolarization in a field that is typically 100–1000 times higher than the field during acquisition. Based on both measurements and simulations, a procedure for calibrating a SQUID-sensor-based MRI system with MR images is presented in this article. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) can be integrated with ULF MRI, and may also benefit from such a calibration procedure. Conventionally, electromagnet probe signals have been used for the SQUID-sensor calibration in MEG; the presented ULF-MRI-based approach using an imaging phantom could replace this procedure in hybrid MEG-MRI or ULF MRI alone. The necessary theory is provided here with experimental verification. The calibration procedure opens the possibility of performing quantitative ULF MRI without sample-specific reference scans.
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