Jolle Karine Barral1, R. Reeve Ingle1,
Edward J. Damrose2, Nancy J. Fischbein2,3, Dwight G.
Nishimura1
1Electrical Engineering, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA, United States; 2Otolaryngology, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA, United States; 3Radiology, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA, United States
Current
staging of laryngeal cancer and choice of optimal treatment are hindered by
the difficulty of accurately assessing cartilage invasion. The use of a
dedicated three-channel array instead of the conventional eight-channel
neuro-vascular array allows a reduction in voxel size by a factor of 20. A
low-order polynomial fitting approach is used to compensate for the coil
sensitivity profile. In healthy volunteers, the increased resolution makes
visible the delineation of non-ossified cartilage, otherwise
indistinguishable from muscle. The dedicated array is also used in cancer
patients, and improvement in image quality is demonstrated.
Keywords