Local Intensity Shift: A Comparison of Loop and Micro-Strip Receivers at 3.0T

Selaka Bandara Bulumulla¹, Eric Fiveland¹, Keith J. Park¹, Randy O. Giaquinto¹, Graeme C. McKinnon², Christopher J. Hardy¹

In standard loop receivers, the sensitivity is shifted from the center of the loop to the left or right, depending on the orientation of the main field. This local-intensity-shift artifact (LISA) carries over to multi-channel arrays, leading to sometimes-pronounced intensity asymmetries in MR images. In this work, we use full-wave electromagnetic simulation and MR imaging to compare the intensity shift of loop receivers to microstrip receivers and show reduced intensity shift in microstrips. The results indicate the feasibility of obtaining images with more uniform signal to noise ratio using microstrip receivers.