Dedicated receiver array coil for ¹ H lung imaging with same-breath acquisition of hyperpolarized ³ He and ¹²⁹ Xe gas

Same-breath acquisition of ¹ H and hyperpolarized gases (³ He and ¹²⁹ Xe) in the lungs provides complementary information on pulmonary structure and function with inherent spatial-temporal registration of the images from the different nuclei. To date ¹ H images have been acquired using the MR system's body coil, which has low SNR when compared with dedicated receiver-array coils. This study demonstrates the design and application of a dedicated ¹ H receiver array to improve the ¹ H lung SNR for use in same-breath acquisition with hyperpolarized gas ³ He or ¹²⁹ Xe at 1.5 Tesla.

A four-loop dedicated receiver-array was developed in-house for ¹ H lung MRI to work in compatibility with existing ³ He/¹²⁹ Xe transmit-receive coils. As part of the design process, a new generalized circuit formalism was developed for trap circuits for such a dedicated ¹ H receiver array at 63.8 MHz with traps for ³ He 48.6 MHz and ¹²⁹ Xe 17.7 MHz.

The ¹ H lung image SNR from the novel ¹ H array was twice that observed with the ¹ H body coil when used in same-breath acquisition with the ³ He or ¹²⁹ Xe T-R coil in situ.

An array coil to improve ¹ H SNR of the lung in same-breath acquisition with hyperpolarized gases has been demonstrated. Magn Reson Med 74:291-299, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.