Slotted End-Ring Volume Coil for Small Animal Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 7T

Oscar Rene Marrufo¹, Sergio Enrique Solis¹, Silvia Sandra Hidalgo¹, Alfredo O. Rodriguez¹

A volume coil based on the high frequency cavity resonator is presented in this paper for whole-body MRI of rodents at 7 Tesla. This coil design has been previously tested on phantoms at 170 MHz (4T for protons) with standard spin echo sequences. The encouraging results obtained motivated us to develop a whole-body coil for rodents for higher field Magnetic Resonance Imaging. This coil design operates in the transceiver mode and was designed for small biological samples. Phantom data showed a performance improvement over the birdcage coil. Body rat images were acquired proving its viability for high field MRI applications.