Mehmet Arcan Erturk1, 2, AbdEl-Monem M. El-Sharkawy2, Paul A. Bottomley, 12
1Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
Recent work with interventional loopless antennae suggest a near-quadratic gain in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with field strength, and potentially safe operation at higher fields (B0>1.5T). This work reports the theoretical and experimental SNR, and initial safety testing of the first intravascular loopless antenna at 7T. An absolute SNR gain of 5.71.5-fold was realized at 7T vs. 3T: more than 20-fold higher than at 1.5T. The probe heated <2.0˚C during 15min RF exposure at an applied 4W/kg SAR. The SNR gain offers the potential for intra-vascular MRI microscopy at <<100μm resolution, larger fields-of-view (FOV) and/or high-speed MRI endoscopy.
Keywords