Abstract #2613

Pauly J, Scott G, Grafendorfer T, Conolly S, Matter N

There are a number of applications for low field MRI, including hyperpolarized gas MRI, hyperpolarized 13C or PHIP, and prepolarized MRI. Unlike conventional MRI, there is no SNR advantage to increased field strength above the so-called body noise dominance threshold. It is critical to choose the most sensitive RF coil for low field MRI. It is well known that litz wire is more sensitive than solid copper up to 1 MHz. Here we found that litz wire provides significant (40%-100%) improvement in SNR over solid copper up to 10 MHz.