Abstract #4404

Optimized RX Field Homogeneity for SENSE Imaging in Parallel Transmit MR

Hanno Homann¹, Tim Nielsen², Kay Nehrke², Ingmar Graesslin², Olaf Dssel¹, Peter Brnert²

¹Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany; ²Philips Research Europe, Hamburg, Germany

Most transmit (TX) arrays used in parallel transmission can also be used as receive (RX) arrays, raising the question of optimal signal combination to recover RX field homogeneity. In this study, different approaches to signal combination are compared, using an 8-channel TX/RX body coil at 3T. The possibility to combine the signals of the individual channels in the image space resulted in greatly improved homogeneity compared to a single channel birdcage coil.