Abstract #2996

7T Transmit Four-Channel Receive Array for High-Resolution MRI of Trabecular Bone in the Distal Tibia

Alexander C. Wright¹, Michael Wald¹, Tom Connick¹, Jeremy Magland¹, Hee Kwon Song¹, Branimir Vasilic¹, Rosti Lemdiasov², Reinhold Ludwig², Felix W. Wehrli¹

¹Laboratory for Structural NMR Imaging, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; ²Insight MRI, Worcester, MA, USA

We have designed and constructed a Helmholtz-pair local transmit coil with a decoupled 4-element receive phased array for imaging the distal tibia in a whole-body 7 T MRI scanner. The coils are described and initial experiences imaging the trabecular bone of volunteers is discussed. Image data were of high quality and showed a gain in SNR of about 3x for imaging the same individual at 7 T and using an identical 3 T version of the 4-element receive array.