MR Simulation System for MR Guided Radiation Therapy at 3.0T

Haoqin Zhu¹, Mehran Fallah-Rad¹, Alexander Shvartsberg¹, Victoria Hornblower¹, Labros Petropoulos¹

Until recently, MRI has only been used as a guidance tool during Radiation Therapys planning stage, due to CTs inability to image oblique planes and large FOVs. Presently, there are no MR compatible simulation systems incorporating the head-neck mask and obtaining MR images for Radiation Therapy planning. We propose, a novel MR simulation system for RT planning of head-neck tumors that includes an MR compatible board combined with a dedicated set of three phased array coils, providing superior uniform coverage of the head-neck region with minimum 40% SNR increase when compared to a commercially available coil system.