Abstract #0428

Detunable Transmit Array & Flexible Receive Array for 7T Shoulder Imaging

Ryan Brown¹, Bei Zhang¹, Cem M. Deniz¹,², Gene Young Cho¹,², Cornel Stefanescu¹, Shumin Wang³, Daniel K. Sodickson¹, Graham C. Wiggins¹

¹Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; ²Sackler Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; ³MRI Research Center, Auburn University, Auburn University, AL, United States

Musculoskeletal imaging is becoming a fruitful application at 7T, particularly for the knee and other extremities. Design of a 7T coil for shoulder imaging is more challenging due to the inability to surround the shoulder with a birdcage and the challenges of RF inhomogeneity. A 7T shoulder coil was constructed with a flexible detunable 8 element loop array for transmit and a 10 element flexible domed receive array. Applying birdcage-like phase to the transmit elements produced a serviceable transmit excitation, and SNR gains in deep cartilage of better than 2-fold were obtained compared to 3T.