Qing Yang1, 2, Chris Collins, Michael Lanagan3, Zachary Herse, Sebastian Rupprecht, Wei Luo, Yeun Chul Ryu, Megha Patel, Jeff Vesek
1The Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States; 2Neurosurgery, The Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States; 3The Penn State University
High dielectric constant (HDC) pads provide a simple, effective, low-cost method for improving the quality and safety of MRI in a number of applications at 3T. Our results indicate that when HDC-pads (filled with barium titanate (BaTiO3)and deuterium oxide (D2O) are placed bilaterally along the sides temporally of the head, axial T2 Turbo Spin Echo (TSE) scans of the brain show an increase in SNR (28-42%), reduced RF power (23.7%), and an enhanced clarity of the temporal lobes. This data suggests that not only do the scans provide clinicians with an enhanced view of the temporal lobes to further aid diagnoses, but the time required to scan is decreased along with the amount of RF power needed per scan.