Abstract #0305

Design, Evaluation & Application of a Modular 32-Channel Transmit/Receive Surface Coil Array for Cardiac MRI at 7T

Andreas Grl¹, Wolfgang Renz², Fabian Hezel¹, Tobias Frauenrath¹, Harald Pfeiffer³, Werner Hoffmann³, Peter Kellman⁴, Conrad Martin¹, Thoralf Niendorf¹,⁵

¹Berlin Ultrahigh Field Facility, Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany; ²Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany; ³Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin, Germany; ⁴Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics, National Institutes of Health/NHLBI, Bethesda, MD, United States; ⁵Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), Charit Campus Buch, Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany

Ultrahigh field cardiac MR is challenged by non-uniform B1+-distributions. A modular two-dimensional 32-channel transceiver surface coil array based on loop elements is proposed to improve parallel imaging and B1+ homogeneity for cardiac MR at 7 T. The RF characteristics were satisfying without the need for subject-specific tuning and matching. MR images were acquired showing a rather uniform intensity over the whole cardiac region and a high myocardium/blood contrast without subject-specific B1+-shimming.