Abstract #4377

In-Vivo Evaluation of a New High Dielectric Constant Material for Local Enhancement of B1+ and SNR at 3T

Christopher T. Sica¹, Sebastian Rupprecht¹, Ray Luo², Zhipeng Cao², Raffi Sahul³, Seongtae Kwon³, Michael T. Lanagan⁴, Christopher Collins⁵, Qing Yang¹,⁶

¹Radiology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States; ²Bioengineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States; ³TRS Technologies Inc, State College, PA, United States; ⁴Engineering Science and Mechanics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States; ⁵Radiology, New York University, New York, United States; ⁶Neurosurgery, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennslyvania, United States

A new high dielectric constant material, in the form of monolithic blocks of relative permittivity ~800, is evaluated for local enhancement of B₁⁺ and SNR at 3T. Phantom studies show up to a two fold increase in SNR close to the blocks along with gains in transmit efficiency. An in-vivo study of the brain showed SNR gains up to 40% in a localized region close to the blocks, a reduction of transmission power by 50%, and local gains in transmit efficiency. Parallel imaging performance in the brain was evaluated and was minimally affected by the presence of the HDC blocks.