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Abstract #3471

Design and Implementation of Novel Ear Shims to Enhance the Functional MRI at 5T and beyond

Ziyu Liu1, Jason Stockmann2,3, and Zhihua Ren1,4
1School of Biomedical Engineering & State Key Laboratory of Advanced Medical Materials and Devices, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China, 2Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, 3Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States, 4Shanghai Clinical Research and Trial Center, Shanghai, China

Synopsis

Keywords: Shims, Shims, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), B0 shimming, Passive Shim, Pyrolytic Graphite, Susceptibility Artifacts

Motivation: High-field MRI (≥5 T) suffers from severe B0 inhomogeneities caused by magnetic susceptibility differences, especially in the inferior temporal cortices (ITCs), external auditory canals (EACs), and mastoid air cells (MACs).

Goal(s): To address the localized bifocal B0 inhomogeneities around EACs and MACs, a novel local passive shim approach using ear shims was proposed and implemented.

Approach: By optimizing the mass ratio of the biocompatible silicone/pyrolytic graphite (PG) mixture and incorporating additional embedded PG plates, the ΔB0 fields were significantly compensated.

Results: In vivo experiments demonstrated a significant reduction in signal voids around EACs and MACs in GRE-echo echo planar imaging (EPI).

Impact: The novel earplug enhances B0 homogeneity in the temporal lobe region, greatly improving the image quality of fMRI and supporting neuroscience research related to the temporal lobe region.

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Keywords