A 13-Channel 3 Tesla Shoulder Coil on a Domed Conformable Former

Graham Charles Wiggins¹, Bei Zhang¹, Christian Glaser¹, Bernd Stoeckel², Michael P. Recht¹, Daniel Sodickson¹

Musculoskeletal imaging depends on anatomically-specific RF coils, which provide better performance than general purpose body arrays. The shoulder is poorly served by commonly available commercial coil designs, which typically consist of a rigid concave former that does not wrap substantially around the shoulder joint. We present a 13 element shoulder array on a flexible domed former which wraps around the shoulder and conforms to a variety of body types. We demonstrate SNR gains 2-fold or better in deep tissue such as the labrum and capsular-ligamentous structures. This has the potential to impact the clinical MRI-based assessment of shoulder instability.