Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has established itself as one of the most complete and non-invasive methods for capturing images with high spatial resolution of human body tissues. With the advancement of equipment and techniques, the method also proved to be of great relevance in the field of research, allowing, above all, new discoveries in the field of neuroscience. To obtain a high-quality image, which allows good visualization of the structures, it is of great importance that the components and acquisition parameters are periodically evaluated, composing a quality control protocol for the scanner. Among these parameters, when it comes to radiofrequency (RF) coils, components responsible for both power transmission and reception of the signal induced by the sample, it is important that they have the capacity to produce a highly homogeneous magnetic field in a given volume of interest and high sensitivity to the signal produced by the sample, presenting a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this work, the SNR and RF field homogeneity parameters were evaluated for three coil geometries that operated in ultra-high magnetic field equipment (9.4 Teslas): solenoid coil, millipede coil and phased array coil with 8 reception channels. The solenoid and millipede coils act as transceivers, while the multichannel coil acts only as a receiver. Applying the proposed protocol, it was observed that the millipede coil presented the highest SNR, while the solenoid coil obtained an intermediate result and the 8-channel coil, the lowest SNR. Regarding homogeneity, the millipede coil presented a more homogeneous field at the ends while the solenoid coil presented better results in the central region.

错误:搜索内容不能为空,请输入英文关键词
错误:关键词超出字数限制,请精简
高级检索

Development of a Quality Control Protocol of Radiofrequency Coils in Pre-clinical Magnetic Resonance Scanners

  • J. M. Aguiar,
  • D. Szczupak,
  • K. T. Chaim,
  • D. Papoti

摘要

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has established itself as one of the most complete and non-invasive methods for capturing images with high spatial resolution of human body tissues. With the advancement of equipment and techniques, the method also proved to be of great relevance in the field of research, allowing, above all, new discoveries in the field of neuroscience. To obtain a high-quality image, which allows good visualization of the structures, it is of great importance that the components and acquisition parameters are periodically evaluated, composing a quality control protocol for the scanner. Among these parameters, when it comes to radiofrequency (RF) coils, components responsible for both power transmission and reception of the signal induced by the sample, it is important that they have the capacity to produce a highly homogeneous magnetic field in a given volume of interest and high sensitivity to the signal produced by the sample, presenting a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this work, the SNR and RF field homogeneity parameters were evaluated for three coil geometries that operated in ultra-high magnetic field equipment (9.4 Teslas): solenoid coil, millipede coil and phased array coil with 8 reception channels. The solenoid and millipede coils act as transceivers, while the multichannel coil acts only as a receiver. Applying the proposed protocol, it was observed that the millipede coil presented the highest SNR, while the solenoid coil obtained an intermediate result and the 8-channel coil, the lowest SNR. Regarding homogeneity, the millipede coil presented a more homogeneous field at the ends while the solenoid coil presented better results in the central region.