Faculty Collaboration Database

A double end-cap birdcage RF coil for small animal whole body imaging. J Magn Reson 2002 Jun;156(2):309-12

Date

08/08/2002

Pubmed ID

12165267

DOI

10.1006/jmre.2002.2547

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0036042075 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   7 Citations

Abstract

Proper design of a birdcage coil plays a very important role in obtaining high-resolution small animal magnetic resonance imaging. The RF field homogeneity and the coil filling factor directly affect the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) and therefore limit the resolution. It has been shown that a conductive end-cap placed on one side of the coil can improve the RF field inhomogeneity near this area. This also contributes to an increase in the S/N by reducing the length of the RF coil. While this is true near the end-cap, the distal half of the coil still suffers from poor homogeneity and S/N. Consequently, such a shortfall may hinder small animal whole body imaging. In order to improve the coil performance for a larger imaging volume, we designed a new small animal birdcage RF coil by adding a detachable second end-cap to the open end. The performance of single end and double end RF coils was compared experimentally. The results indicate that the double end-cap can provide superior uniformity along the long axis of the coil. Furthermore, if one wishes to obtain the same homogeneity within a given volume, a double end-cap would have less than half of the length of the single end-cap coil leading to a superior S/N performance.

Author List

Gulsen G, Muftuler LT, 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

Animals
Equipment Design
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Phantoms, Imaging