Abstract #0123

Vernickel P, Findeklee C, Rschmann P, Leussler C, Overweg J, Graesslin I, Luedeke K, Katscher U, Schuenemann K

Multi-channel transmit MR systems bear the potential of compensating signal intensity variations occurring at higher field strengths due to dielectric resonances. Methods like RF shimming and local excitation in combination with Transmit Sense can be applied to compensate for these effects. Moreover, methods like Transmit Sense can be applied to excite arbitrarily shaped pattern efficiently. The implementation of these methods adds new requirements to the MRI hardware, especially with respect to the number of RF transmit channels. This work describes the implementation and testing of a decoupled eight-element transmit/receive body coil for 3T and its integration into a standard clinical MRI scanner.