Large improvement of RF transmission efficiency and reception sensitivity for human in vivo 31P MRS imaging using ultrahigh dielectric constant materials at 7T

In vivo 31P MRS provides a unique and important imaging tool for studying high-energy phosphate metabolism and bioenergetics noninvasively. However, compared to 1H MRS, 31P MRS with a relatively low gyromagnetic ratio ( γ) has a lower and limited sensitivity even at ultrahigh field. The proof of concept has been recently demonstrated that the use of high dielectric constant (HDC) materials between RF coil and object sample could increase MRI signal and reduce required RF transmission power for reaching the same RF pulse flip angle in the region of interest.

Source: Magnetic Resonance Imaging - July 21, 2017 Category: Radiology Authors: Byeong-Yeul Lee, Xiao-Hong Zhu, Sebastian Rupprecht, Michael T. Lanagan, Qing X. Yang, Wei Chen Source Type: research