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Magnetic resonance imaging radio frequency arrays are composed of multiple receive coils that have their signals combined to form an image. Combination requires an estimate of the radio frequency coil sensitivities to align signal phases and prevent destructive interference. At lower fields this can be accomplished using a uniform physical reference coil. However, at higher fields, uniform volume coils are lacking and, when available, suffer from regions of low receive sensitivity that result in poor sensitivity estimation and combination. Several approaches exist that do not require a physical reference coil but require manual intervention, specific prescans, or must be completed post-acquisition. This makes these methods impractical for large multi-volume datasets such as those collected for novel types of functional MRI or quantitative susceptibility mapping, where magnitude and phase are important. This pilot study proposes a fitted SVD method which utilizes existing combination methods to create a phase sensitive combination method targeted at large multi-volume datasets. This method uses any multi-image prescan to calculate the relative receive sensitivities using voxel-wise singular value decomposition. These relative sensitivities are fitted to the solid harmonics using an iterative least squares fitting algorithm. Fits of the relative sensitivities are used to align the phases of the receive coils and improve combination in subsequent acquisitions during the imaging session. This method is compared against existing approaches in the human brain at 7 Tesla by examining the combined data for the presence of singularities and changes in phase signal-to-noise ratio. Two additional applications of the method are also explored, using the fitted SVD method in an asymmetrical coil and in a case with subject motion. The fitted SVD method produces singularity-free images and recovers between 95–100% of the phase signal-to-noise ratio depending on the prescan data resolution. Using solid harmonic fitting to interpolate singular value decomposition derived receive sensitivities from existing prescans allows the fitted SVD method to be used on all acquisitions within a session without increasing exam duration. Our fitted SVD method is able to combine imaging datasets accurately without supervision during online reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many neuroscience applications have adopted functional MRI as a tool to investigate the healthy and diseased brain during the completion of a task. While ultra‐high‐field MRI has allowed for improved contrast and signal‐to‐noise ratios during functional MRI studies, it remains a challenge to create local radiofrequency coils that can accommodate an unobstructed visual field and be suitable for routine use, while at the same time not compromise performance. Performance (both during transmission and reception) can be improved by using close‐fitting coils; however, maintaining sensitivity over the whole brain often requires the introduction of coil elements proximal to the eyes, thereby partially occluding the subject's visual field. This study presents a 7 T head coil, with eight transmit dipoles and 32 receive loops, that is designed to remove visual obstructions from the subject's line of sight, allowing for an unencumbered view of visual stimuli, the reduction of anxiety induced from small enclosures, and the potential for eye‐tracking measurements. The coil provides a practical solution for routine imaging, including a split design (anterior and posterior halves) that facilitates subject positioning, including those with impaired mobility, and the placement of devices required for patient comfort and motion reduction. The transmit and receive coils displayed no degradation of performance due to adaptions to the design topology (both mechanical and electrical) required to create an unobstructed visual field. All computer‐aided design files, electromagnetic simulation models, transmit field maps and local specific absorption rate matrices are provided to promote reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radio-frequency (RF) arrays constructed using electric dipoles have potential benefits for transmit and receive applications using the ultra-high field (UHF) MRI. This paper examines some of the implementation barriers regarding dipole RF arrays for human head imaging at 7 T. The dipole array was constructed with conformal, meandered dipoles with dimensions selected utilizing an evolutionary-based optimization routine to shape-optimize the dipole structure. Coupling matrix synthesis (CMS) was utilized to decouple the dipole array. Mean and worst-case transmission between nearest-neighbour dipoles was −17.2 and −15.5 dB, respectively (±2.4 dB). Transmit efficiencies of 24.6 nT/V for the entire brain and 26.0 nT/V across the axial slice were observed. The total and peak 10-g SAR, normalized to 1 Watt accepted input power per channel, was 0.163 and 0.601 W/kg, respectively. Maximum and mean noise correlations were −17 dB and −32 dB, respectively. The use of both CMS and a novel shape optimization routine to design a dipole array translated into sufficient transmit uniformity with a simultaneous reduction in 10-g SAR in comparison to a non-optimized dipole array of the same geometry. As a receiver, the dipole array maintained high orthogonality between elements, resulting in strong parallel imaging performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents electric and magnetic probes to measure radio frequency (RF) electric and magnetic fields for measuring the time-varying RF fields used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A small single loop (2 cm) and short dipole antenna (2 cm) were developed to monitor the near field magnetic and electric exposure during the medical device testing. Theoretical analysis for each designed probe was performed to convert the real time receive signals to the exposed electric and magnetic field. Probes in this paper were tuned and matched at center frequency of 127.6 MHz for 3T MRI scanners to improve the accuracy and sensitivity. Different cables were designed to reduce the E-field pick up and achieving the most accurate measurement setup. Probes were fabricated on a single sided printed circuit board, FR4 of thickness 1.57 mm and a copper thickness of 35~\mu \textm . The measured S-parameters of the magnetic and electric field probes show less than −44 and −45 dB return loss at 127.6-MHz center frequency of the RF Birdcage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-channel radio-frequency (RF) arrays, composed of multiple resonant coils, provide significant benefits for MRI during both signal reception (receive) and excitation (transmit). Demonstration of increased signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and acceleration factors during parallel acquisitions has lead to the development of receive arrays. Conversely, transmit arrays have demonstrated considerable potential for mitigating excitation inhomogeneity arising at ultra-high magnetic field strengths (\geq 7~T), present due to wave-like interactions inside the sample. Due to geometric constraints, the design of both receive and transmit arrays requires the resonating coils to be closely spaced. Significant overlap in the near-field distributions from each coil results in coupling. Without an adequate decoupling strategy applied between individual elements in an RF array, the MRI performance of the array can be significantly degraded. This work presents a method to design decoupling networks for arbitrarily large RF arrays based on direct synthesis of a coupling matrix. Reflection coefficients are fitted to transfer polynomials with transmission coefficients simultaneously minimized through a nonlinear optimization. The method demonstrates the design of n^th-order distributed filters and lumped element networks that compensate for all first-order and cross-coupling terms arising in an RF array suitable for MRI. The synthesis results are computed for 4-, 8-, and 32-channel RF arrays. Monte Carlo analyses and experimental results for two RF array constructions demonstrate the robustness of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-channel radio-frequency (RF) transmit coil arrays have been developed to mitigate many of the RF challenges associated with ultra-high field (\geq 7T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). These arrays can be used for parallel RF transmission to produce spatially tailored RF excitation over the field of view. However, the realization of such arrays remains a challenge due to significant reactive interaction between the array coils, i.e., mutual coupling. In this paper, a novel bandstop filter (“magnetic wall”) is used in an MRI RF transmit array to decouple individual coils. The proposed decoupling method is inspired by periodic resonator designs commonly used in frequency selective surfaces and is used as a distributed RF filter to suppress the transmission of RF energy between coils in an array. The decoupling of the magnetic wall (MW) is analyzed in terms of equivalent circuits that include terms for both magnetic and electric coupling for an arbitrary number of MW resonant conductors. Both frequency—and time-domain full-wave simulations were performed to analyze a specific MW structure. The performance of the proposed method is experimentally validated for both first-order coupling and higher-order coupling with a three-coil 7T array setup. Analysis and measurements confirm that the rejection band of the MW can be tuned to provide high isolation in the presence of cross coupling between RF array coils. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Ultra-high field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners (\geq 7T) require radio-frequency (RF) coils to operate in the range of the electromagnetic spectrum where the effective wavelength in the tissue approaches the patient dimensions. Multi-channel transmit arrays, driven in parallel, have been developed to increase the transmit field (B1^{+}) uniformity in this wavelength regime. However, the closely packed array elements interact through mutual coupling. This paper expands on the ability of a distributed planar filter (the “magnetic wall”) to decouple individual elements in an entire array. A transmit RF coil suitable for neuroimaging at 7T was constructed. The transmit coil, composed of 10 individual surface coil elements, was decoupled with magnetic walls. A separate receive coil array was used for signal reception. The hardware and imaging performance of the transmit coil was validated with electromagnetic simulation, bench-top measurements, and in vivo MRI experiments. Analysis and measurements confirmed that the magnetic wall decoupling method provides high isolation between transmit channels, while minimally affecting the B1^{+} field profiles. Electromagnetic simulations confirmed that the decoupling method did not correlate to local specific absorption rate (SAR) “hot spots” or increase local-to-global SAR fractions in comparison to previously reported 7T multi-channel transmit arrays employing different decoupling methods. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reducing the impact of mutual coupling in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) radiofrequency (RF) coil transmit/receive arrays constitutes a serious design challenge. Recently, it has been shown that mutual coupling in such arrays can be significantly reduced by circumferentially shielding the individual array elements. For such a decoupling method to be optimized and readily incorporated into future array designs, comprehensive analysis of the shield's effect on overall element and array performance is required. This study is focused on methodically analyzing this decoupling method to determine the effect of shielding geometry on overall coil performance in high-field MRI. To this end, experiments on a 7-Tesla MRI system, as well as full-wave electromagnetic simulations, were performed and performance metrics, such as Q-factor, power efficiency, transmit power, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and specific absorption rate (SAR), were investigated for different coil/shield configurations. Differences in the geometry of a RF coil and its respective shield resulted in an increase in peak SNR of up to 40% compared to an unshielded coil. This was concurrent with a 2-4 dB reduction in the required transmit power to produce a given flip angle and a 25% reduction in peak local SAR compared to the unshielded coil. Coupling between adjacent loaded coils was strongly influenced by the coil/shield geometry and ranged from -6.5 to -22.1 dB. Based upon the analysis presented herein, example coil-array designs are provided and have been optimized for either peripheral or whole-brain imaging. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson Part B (Magn Reson Engineering) 43B:11-21, 2013 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The collection of fast imaging techniques that use multiple spin-echo (MSE) sequences relies on a precise phase relationship between spin echoes and stimulated echoes that form along the radiofrequency refocusing pulse train. Failure to achieve this condition produces dark banding artifacts that result from destructive interference between signal coherence pathways. Satisfying this condition on the microsecond timescale required is technically challenging for conditions involving strong diffusion-weighted gradients, for arbitrary orientation acquisitions and at large field strengths with high-resolution acquisitions. Two clinically significant MSE sequences, fast spin echo (FSE) and balanced steady-state free precession (b-SSFP), are investigated in this work using a 4-T whole-body scanner. We developed a readout-projection-based prescan technique that ensures coherent signal formation by utilizing banding artifacts to automatically adjust gradient balance. Subsequent image acquisition using the results of this prescan permits the formation of coherent-echo images, which are robust under challenging imaging conditions. The robustness of this approach is demonstrated for FSE and b-SSFP images obtained from the knees of human volunteers. We believe that the use of this prescan calibration technique for the alignment of signal pools in MSE sequences is critical at high fields and will facilitate the implementation of high-quality clinically significant sequences such as FSE and b-SSFP. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The use of multiple radiofrequency (RF) surface coil elements has applications in both fast parallel imaging and conventional imaging techniques. Through implementation of a simple magnetic decoupling network, 50Ω matching can be achieved in both the transmitter and receiver chains, enabling the use of conventional RF power amplifiers and preamplifiers for transceive applications. Unlike phased array coil arrangements using low impedance preamplifiers for decoupling, the noise correlation between 50Ω coils decoupled with discrete components has not been characterized. We have measured the dependence of coil quality factor (Q-factor) and noise correlation on coil separation and shown these quantities to be consistent with theoretical arguments, at least at 4T (170MHz). Our results suggest that a coil system for transmission and reception of NMR signals with 50Ω coils can be built to take advantage of all the benefits of conventional array coils and with the added advantages of using conventional amplifiers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The close homology of monkeys and humans has increased the prevalence of non-human-primate models in functional MRI studies of brain connectivity. To improve upon the attainable resolution in functional MRI studies, a commensurate increase in the sensitivity of the radiofrequency receiver coil is required to avoid a reduction in the statistical power of the analysis. Most receive coils are comprised of multiple loops distributed equidistantly over a surface to produce spatially independent sensitivity profiles. A larger number of smaller elements will in turn provide a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over the same field of view. As the loops become physically smaller, noise originating from the sample is reduced relative to noise originating from the coil. In this coil-noise-dominated regime, coil elements can have overlapping sensitivity profiles, yet still possess only mildly correlated noise. In this manuscript, we demonstrate that inductively decoupled, concentric coil arrays can improve temporal SNR when operating in the coil-noise-dominated regime—in contrast to what is expected for the more ubiquitous sample-noise-dominated array. A small, thin, 7-channel flexible coil is developed and operated in conjunction with an existing whole-head monkey coil. The mean and maximum noise correlation between the two arrays was 5% and 23%, respectively. When the flex coil was placed over the sensorimotor cortex, the temporal SNR improved by up to 2.3-fold in the peripheral cortex and up to 1.3-fold at a 2- to 3-cm depth within the brain. When the flex coil was placed over the frontal eye fields, resting-state maps showed substantially elevated sensitivity to correlations in the prefrontal cortex (54%), supplementary eye fields (39%), and anterior cingulate cortex (41%). The concentric-coil topology provided a pragmatic and robust means to significantly improve local temporal SNR and the statistical power of functional connectivity maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The small common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is an ideal nonhuman primate for awake fMRI in ultra-high field small animal MRI scanners. However, it can often be challenging in task-based fMRI experiments to provide a robust stimulus within the MRI environment while using hardware (an RF coil and restraint system) that is compatible with awake imaging. Here we present an RF coil and restraint system that permits unimpeded access to an awake marmoset's head subsequent to immobilization, thereby permitting the setup of peripheral devices and stimuli proximal to the head. As an example application, an fMRI experiment probing whole-brain activation in response to marmoset vocalizations was conducted—this paradigm showed significant bilateral activation in the inferior colliculus, medial lateral geniculate nucleus, and auditory cortex. The coil performance was evaluated and compared to a previously published restraint system with integrated RF coil. The image and temporal SNR were improved by up to 58 % and 27 %, respectively, in the peripheral cortex and by 30 % and 3 % in the centre of the brain. The restraint-system topology limited head motion to less than 100 µm of translation and 0.30° of rotation when measured over a 15-minute acquisition. The proposed hardware solution provides a versatile approach to awake-marmoset imaging and, as demonstrated, can facilitate task-based fMRI. • RF coil/restraint system developed to permit access to a marmoset's head. • Hardware permits setup of peripheral devices and stimuli proximal to the head. • RF coil has higher image and temporal SNR than previous design. • Activation increased in auditory pathway in response to marmoset vocalizations. • Versatile approach to task-based fMRI of awake marmosets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monkeys are a valuable model for investigating the structure and function of the brain. To attain the requisite resolution to resolve fine anatomical detail and map localized brain activation requires radiofrequency (RF) coils that produce high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) both spatially (image SNR) and temporally. Increasing the strength of the static magnetic field is an effective method to improve SNR, yet this comes with commensurate challenges in RF coil design. First, at ultrahigh field strengths, the magnetic field produced by a surface coil in a dielectric medium is asymmetric. In neuroimaging of rhesus macaques, this complex field pattern is compounded by the heterogeneous structure of the head. The confluence of these effects results in a non-uniform flip angle, but more markedly, a suboptimal circularly polarized mode with reduced transmit efficiency. Secondly, susceptibility-induced geometric distortions are exacerbated when performing echo-planar imaging (EPI), which is a standard technique in functional studies. This requires receive coils capable of parallel imaging with low noise amplification during image reconstruction. To address these challenges at 7 T, this study presents a parallel (8-channel) transmit coil developed for monkey imaging, along with a highly parallel (24-channel) receive coil. RF shimming with the parallel-transmit coil produced significant advantages—the transmit field was 38% more uniform than a traditional circularly polarized mode and 54% more power-efficient, demonstrating that parallel-transmit coils should be used for monkey imaging at ultrahigh field strengths. The receive coil had the ability to accelerate along an arbitrary axis with at least a three-fold reduction factor, thereby reducing geometric distortions in whole-brain EPI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]