Oliver Kraff1,2, Andreas K. Bitz1,2,
Philipp Dammann1,3, Lena C. Schaefer1,2, Mark E. Ladd1,2,
Susanne C. Ladd1,2, Harald H. Quick1,4
1Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic
Resonance Imaging, Essen, Germany; 2Department of Diagnostic and
Interventional Radiology and Neuroradiology, University Hospital Essen, Essen,
Germany; 3Clinic for Neurosurgery, University Hospital Essen,
Essen, Germany; 4Institute for Medical Physics,
Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuernberg, Erlangen, Germany
An
eight-channel transmit/receive RF array was built for imaging peripheral
regions of the musculoskeletal system that have not been addressed at 7T so
far. The array consists of two coil clusters, made of four overlapping loop
coils each, to enable flexible positioning on the human body. Numerical
simulations were performed for safety validation. We show in vivo results of
the human wrist, shoulder, elbow and ankle revealing good excitation over a
180mm field-of-view. Not only GRE but also typical clinical sequences like
STIR and TSE performed very well. Imaging of small pathologies (cartilage,
ligaments, nerves) could benefit from this technique.