[Basic examination of uniformity of image and contrast of multi-transmit system]

In 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), shortened radio frequency (RF) wavelengths cause B(1) inhomogeneity. Multi transmit (MT) has been reported as a method of solving this problem. We compared MT with single transmit (ST) and ST body-tuned CLEAR (BTC) in terms of basic performance because we got an opportunity to use MT. A phantom was used to evaluate the uniformity of the flip angles (FAs) of images, the phantom's diameter, and the specific electric conductivity. To evaluate contrast, volunteers performed the significant difference test, and the changes in the FA of the phantom were measured. MT and BTC were better than ST in terms of the uniformity of the images. MT had the best contrast. The results showed that the uniformity of the images and the contrast were improved using MT compared with ST because MT can be uniformly irradiated to an object using two individual RF transmitters.