Abstract #0265

Imaging of the Entire Spinal Cord with a 32-Channel pTx Body Array at 7 T

Christoph Stefan Aigner^1,2, Johannes Anton Grimm^3,4, Christian Jan Oliver Neelsen⁵, Johann Jende⁵, Stephan Orzada³, Thomas M. Fiedler³, Simone Kühn⁶, Mark E. Ladd^3,4,7, and Sebastian Schmitter^2,3,8

¹Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany, ²Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin, Germany, ³Medical Physics in Radiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany, ⁴Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany, ⁵Devision of Radiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany, ⁶Center for Environmental Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany, ⁷Faculty of Medicine, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany, ⁸Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States

Synopsis

Keywords: High-Field MRI, RF Pulse Design & Fields, 7 Tesla, parallel transmit (pTX), Spinal Cord

Motivation: Ultrahigh-field MRI of the spinal cord is typically limited by spatial B₁⁺ variation.

Goal(s): Use a remote 32-channel parallel transmission (pTx) body array in combination with a local receive coil to optimize the B₁⁺ field, to assess the impact of respiration on B₀/B₁⁺ fields and, to acquire high-resolution 2D/3D datasets of the entire spinal cord.

Approach: In-vivo study on three healthy volunteers at 7 Tesla using tailored static pTx / RF shimming.

Results: Respiration had a minimal impact on the B₁⁺ field but affected the B₀field. Despite this, high-quality GRE datasets were successfully acquired both during breath-holding and free breathing.

Impact: This study demonstrates the potential of a 7 Tesla pTx body array with optimized pTx techniques for imaging the entire spinal cord in a large field of view, paving the way for improved diagnosis of spinal cord pathologies.

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