Norman B. Konyer1,
2, Alexey A. Tonyushkin3, 4, Andrew J.M. Kiruluta3,
4, Michael D. Noseworthy1, 2
1Imaging
Research Centre, St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; 2Electrical
and Computer Engineering Dept., McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario,
Canada; 3Radiology Dept., Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; 4Physics Dept., Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA, United States
Patch antenna is a typical choice for a transmit/receive probe for a traveling wave MRI (TW-MRI) on 7T preclinical scanners. We demonstrate an alternative circularly polarized coil that is more ideally suited for TW-MRI in systems, where the diameter-to-critical-wavelength ratio is small. The coil consists of two orthogonal loop-coils that are driven in quadrature. We used our coil for TW-MRI in a clinical 3T system to image a long dielectric rod filled with saline, and a bottle of saline adjacent to the rod. The SNR from this coil is significantly improved over previous linear coils developed for TW-MRI and tested on 3T system. With these improved coils, it is possible to apply far-field imaging concepts to a clinical 3T system.
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