A dedicated flexible 16-element transceiver coil array was developed, simulated, and tested for cardiac MRI (cMRI) in pigs at 7T. The 16-elements of the array are printed on a flexible (Kapton polyimide) substrate to conform to the pig thorax. The performance of the elastic array is evaluated by EM-simulations and MR-measurements in a pig phantom and a 45-kg pig in-vivo. The flexible array supports parallel imaging with acceleration factors up to R=4 with reasonable g-factors (g=1.2) in an ROI at the position heart. The array enables geometrical conformity to pig body weights within a large range of sizes and shapes.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.