Improved receiver coil for upper thoracic spine imaging in a vertical magnetic field

• To improve image quality in the upper thoracic spine, an anatomically shaped copper wire loop coil, made to fit over the patient's shoulders, was constructed. The coil was permanently mounted on a foam-rubber vest to facilitate attachment to the patient. Phantom and in vivo studies of the performance of the coil in healthy volunteers showed as much as a two times greater signal-to-noise ratio relative to that of standard coils for the upper thoracic spine. In a patient with lesions in the upper thoracic cord, the coil gave better image quality in the region of interest than did the standard coils. The coil has been integrated into the authors' routine imaging equipment and has been the coil of choice for imaging of the upper thoracic spine on their 0.3-T vertical field system.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Radiologi och bildbehandling (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Custom-built coils

Spine

MR

32.1214

Technology

Vertical field imaging

Publikations- och innehållstyp

art (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)