Uniform Bilateral Breast MRI at 7T with Dual Transmit and 30-Channel Receive

Michel Italiaander¹, Ingmar Voogt¹, Irene van Kalleveen¹, Bertine L. Stehouwer¹, Tijl van der Velde¹, Peter R. Luijten¹, Vincent Oltman Boer², Dennis W.J. Klomp¹

In the detection of breast cancer strong T1 weighting in contrast-enhanced MRI is essential, requiring a high density of strong flip angles, that generally will be limited due to SAR constrains particularly at 7 Tesla. Therefore we propose the use of efficient quadrature surface arrays to maximize contrast-enhanced MRI efficiency at 7 Tesla in the breast (bilateral). With B1 compensating RF pulses in one dimension and B1 shimming in the second dimension uniform flip angles can be obtained. Combined with 30 receivers, we demonstrate uniform and strong T1 weighting in a volunteer and in a patient with breast cancer.