Ozkan Doganay1,
2, Kundan Thind1, 2, Trevor P. Wade1,
Alexei Ouriadov1, Giles E. Santyr1, 2
1Imaging
Research Laboratories, Robarts Research, London, Ontario, Canada; 2Medical
Biophysics, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada
We report a novel RF transmit-only/receive-only (TO/RO) coil configuration providing excellent transmit efficiency and uniformity as well as high sensitivity for hyperpolarized 129Xe MR lung imaging of rodents at 3T (35.34 MHz). The TO/RO coil construction consisted of three components: (i) a high-pass birdcage transmit coil which produces a homogeneous B1 magnetic field (ii) a saddle-shaped single-turn receive-only surface coil that couples closely to the rodent lung, and (iii) RF shielding. Switching between transmit and receiving modes was achieved through using a MOSFET switch circuit by setting the DC component of the transmit signal as a gate voltage.