Faculty Collaboration Database

An inverse method to design RF coil arrays optimized for SENSE imaging. Phys Med Biol 2006 Dec 21;51(24):6457-69

Date

12/07/2006

Pubmed ID

17148829

DOI

10.1088/0031-9155/51/24/012

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-33846863599 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   10 Citations

Abstract

A new method to design MRI RF coils that are optimized for SENSE (sensitivity encoding) imaging is introduced. In this approach, the inverse problem was solved where the surface current density distribution on a coil former was calculated to maximize the SNR(sense) within a volume of interest (VOI). For that purpose, an analytic relationship was formulated between the SNR(sense) and surface current density on the coil former. The SNR at pixel rho in a SENSE-MR image, SNR(sense,rho), is inversely proportional to the g-factor: therefore, the g-factor was formulated in terms of the B1 distribution of the coils. Then, by specifying the geometry of the desired coil former and using a finite element mesh (FEM), the surface current distribution was calculated to maximize the SNR(sense), by minimizing (1/SNR(sense)) in the VOI using a least squares procedure. A simple two-coil array was designed and built to test the method and phantom images were collected. The results show that the new coil design method yielded better uniformity and SNR in SENSE images compared to those of standard coils.

Author List

Muftuler LT, Chen G, Nalcioglu O

Author

Lutfi Tugan Muftuler PhD Professor in the Neurosurgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Algorithms
Artifacts
Diagnostic Imaging
Equipment Design
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Least-Squares Analysis
Mathematical Computing
Models, Statistical
Models, Theoretical
Phantoms, Imaging
Radio Waves
Sensitivity and Specificity
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted