An improved equivalent magnetization current method applied to the design of local breast gradient coils

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important tool in the diagnosis of breast cancer. Increased gradient strengths and slew rates assist in terms of the potential to image with increased spatial and/or temporal resolution. Strong gradients also facilitate diffusion studies; one well-known method of increasing gradient strength is to design local gradient coils, those with reduced diameter where the gradient conductors are closer to the region of interest. In the case of breast imaging, this necessitates the use of coil geometries that lack the symmetry (e.g. cylindrical) required by some standard coil design techniques. Therefore a symmetry-free, inverse boundary element method (BEM) was employed to design a set of local breast gradient coils which would allow simultaneous imaging of both breasts. This BEM is a modified version of a previously reported equivalent magnetisation current method that now incorporates a piecewise-linear magnetisation rather than piecewise-constant. It is demonstrated that coil geometries more closely encompassing the sample shape, hence possessing wire windings located close the sample, produce superior coil performances. The use of two regions of interest instead one that covers the two samples produces superior high performance breast gradient coils. Additionally, it was demonstrated that this inverse BEM produced standard cylindrical coils with comparable properties and that the method is robust when challenged with difficult coil design problems in two other examples.