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We present a quadrature volume coil designed for brain imaging of a macaque monkey fixed in a sphinx position (facing down the bore) within a stereotactic frame at 3 T, where the position of the monkey and presence of the frame preclude use of existing coils. Requirements include the ability to position and remove the coil without disturbing the position of the monkey in the frame. A saddle coil and a solenoid were combined on a modified cylindrical former and connected in quadrature as to produce a homogeneous circularly polarized field throughout the brain. To allow the loops of the saddle coil to encompass the ear posts, partial disassembly and reassembly were facilitated by embedding pin and socket contacts into separate pieces of the former. Coil design included simulation of the electromagnetic fields for the coil containing a 3D model of a monkey’s head. The resulting coil produced adequate homogeneity and signal-to-noise ratio throughout the brain.

Introduce a novel compressed sensing reconstruction method to accelerate proton resonance frequency shift temperature imaging for MRI-induced radiofrequency heating evaluation.A compressed sensing approach that exploits sparsity of the complex difference between postheating and baseline images is proposed to accelerate proton resonance frequency temperature mapping. The method exploits the intra-image and inter-image correlations to promote sparsity and remove shared aliasing artifacts. Validations were performed on simulations and retrospectively undersampled data acquired in ex vivo and in vivo studies by comparing performance with previously published techniques.The proposed complex difference constrained compressed sensing reconstruction method improved the reconstruction of smooth and local proton resonance frequency temperature change images compared to various available reconstruction methods in a simulation study, a retrospective study with heating of a human forearm in vivo, and a retrospective study with heating of a sample of beef ex vivo.Complex difference based compressed sensing with utilization of a fully sampled baseline image improves the reconstruction accuracy for accelerated proton resonance frequency thermometry. It can be used to improve the volumetric coverage and temporal resolution in evaluation of radiofrequency heating due to MRI, and may help facilitate and validate temperature-based methods for safety assurance.

We present an approach to performing rapid calculations of temperature within tissue by interleaving, at regular time intervals, 1) an analytical solution to the Pennes (or other desired) bioheat equation excluding the term for thermal conduction and 2) application of a spatial filter to approximate the effects of thermal conduction. Here, the basic approach is presented with attention to filter design. The method is applied to a few different cases relevant to magnetic resonance imaging, and results are compared to those from a full finite-difference (FD) implementation of the Pennes bio-heat equation. It is seen that results of the proposed method are in reasonable agreement with those of the FD approach, with about 15% difference in the calculated maximum temperature increase, but are calculated in a fraction of the time, requiring less than 2% of the calculation time for the FD approach in the cases evaluated.

To compare numerically simulated and experimentally measured temperature increase due to specific energy absorption rate from radiofrequency fields.Temperature increase induced in both a phantom and in the human forearm when driving an adjacent circular surface coil was mapped using the proton resonance frequency shift technique of magnetic resonance thermography. The phantom and forearm were also modeled from magnetic resonance image data, and both specific energy absorption rate and temperature change as induced by the same coil were simulated numerically.The simulated and measured temperature increase distributions were generally in good agreement for the phantom. The relative distributions for the human forearm were very similar, with the simulations giving maximum temperature increase about 25% higher than measured.Although a number of parameters and uncertainties are involved, it should be possible to use numerical simulations to produce reasonably accurate and conservative estimates of temperature distribution to ensure safety in magnetic resonance imaging. R01 EB006563

Passive dielectric materials have been used to improve aspects of MRI by affecting the distribution of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields. Recently, interest in such materials has increased with the number of high-field MRI sites. Here, we introduce a new material composed of sintered high-permittivity ceramic beads in deuterated water. This arrangement maintains the ability to create flexible pads for conforming to individual subjects. The properties of the material are measured and the performance of the material is compared to previously used materials in both simulation and experiment at 3 T. Results show that both permittivity of the beads and effect on signal-to-noise ratio and required transmit power in MRI are greater than those of materials consisting of ceramic powder in water. Importantly, use of beads results in both higher permittivity and lower conductivity than use of powder.

Purpose: To improve the homogeneity of transmit volume coils at high magnetic fields (≥4 T). Due to radiofrequency (RF) field/tissue interactions at high fields, 4 T to 8 T, the transmit profile from head-sized volume coils shows a distinctive pattern with relatively strong RF magnetic field B1 in the center of the brain. Materials and Methods: In contrast to conventional volume coils at high field strengths, surface coil phased arrays can provide increased RF field strength peripherally. In theory, simultaneous transmission from these two devices could produce a more homogeneous transmission field. To minimize interactions between the phased array and the volume coil, counter rotating current (CRC) surface coils consisting of two parallel rings carrying opposite currents were used for the phased array. Results: Numerical simulations and experimental data demonstrate that substantial improvements in transmit field homogeneity can be obtained. Conclusion: We have demonstrated the feasibility of using simultaneous transmission with human head-sized volume coils and CRC phased arrays to improve homogeneity of the transmit RF B1 field for high-field MRI systems. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;32:476–481. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

It is important to accurately characterize the heating of tissues due to the radiofrequency energy applied during MRI. This has led to an increase in the use of numerical methods to predict specific energy absorption rate distributions for safety assurance in MRI. To ensure these methods are accurate for actual MRI coils, however, it is necessary to compare to experimental results. Here, we report results of some recent efforts to experimentally map temperature change and specific energy absorption rate in a phantom and in vivo where the only source of heat is the radiofrequency fields produced by the imaging coil. Results in a phantom match numerical simulation well, and preliminary results in vivo show measurable temperature increase. With further development, similar methods may be useful for verifying numerical methods for predicting specific energy absorption rate distributions and in some cases for directly measuring temperature changes and specific energy absorption rate induced by the radiofrequency fields in MRI experiments.