Abstract #2630

A 1H and 23Na Two Coil System Optimized for Imaging Mini-Pig Knee Cartilage at a Whole Body 7 Tesla MRI

Florian M. Meise¹, Armin M. Nagel¹, Tobias Gotterbarm², Sebastian Hagmann², Manuela Rsler¹, Marc-Andre Weber³, Wolfhard Semmler¹, Reiner Umathum¹

¹Dept. of Medical Physics in Radiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, BW, Germany; ²Dept. of Orthopaedic Surgery, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, BW, Germany; ³Dept. of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, BW, Germany

Investigation of integration and vitality of cartilage transplants as well as the underlying cartilage matrix are important to optimize therapeutic approaches for cartilage damage. The aim of this study was to design an SNR optimized coil system for co-registered ¹H and ²³Na imaging of mini-pig knee cartilage at a whole body 7 Tesla MRI scanner, without the common loss of sensitivity due to a double resonant coil design.