Laura Sacolick1, Mika W. Vogel1, William A. Grissom2, Guido Kudielka1, Theodor Vetter1, Ileana Hancu3
1GE Global Research, Garching b. Munchen, Bayern, Germany; 2Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 3GE Global Research, Niskayuna, NY, United States
B1 homogeneity and relative SAR is compared in the 3T breast for several configurations of parallel transmit system. Active RF shimming with 1, 2, and 8 transmit channels is compared to passive shimming- where one off-tuned coil element is placed around the right breast, weakly coupling to the main transmit field. B1 homogeneity improves with increasing channel count, with the passive transmit coil giving B1 homogeneity similar to a two-channel system, and significantly lower SAR than any active parallel transmit configuration.