A Measurement Setup for Combined Chlorine (35Cl) and Sodium (23Na) MRI of the Human Brain

Armin M. Nagel¹, Titus Lanz², Dominik Berthel², Frank Resmer², Wolfhard Semmler¹, Reiner Umathum¹

A dual tuned head coil for combined ³⁵Cl/ ²³Na imaging is presented. For evaluating sensitivity optimization, two versions were built: one with a ²³Na trap in the ³⁵Cl resonator, one without. By including ²³Na traps into the ³⁵Cl resonator, the B₁ efficiency of ³⁵Cl versus ²³Na can be controlled. The version with ²³Na traps was evaluated in phantom and in vivo imaging. Both channels show good B₁ efficiency and SNR performance. The presented setup allows for combined ²³Na/ ³⁵Cl MRI without repositioning of the patient.