Optimized parallel transmit and receive radiofrequency coil for ultrahigh-field MRI of monkeys

Monkeys are a valuable model for investigating the structure and function of the brain. To attain the requisite resolution to resolve fine anatomical detail and map localized brain activation requires radiofrequency (RF) coils that produce high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) both spatially (image SNR) and temporally. Increasing the strength of the static magnetic field is an effective method to improve SNR, yet this comes with commensurate challenges in RF coil design. First, at ultrahigh field strengths, the magnetic field produced by a surface coil in a dielectric medium is asymmetric. In neuroimaging of rhesus macaques, this complex field pattern is compounded by the heterogeneous structure of the head. The confluence of these effects results in a non-uniform flip angle, but more markedly, a suboptimal circularly polarized mode with reduced transmit efficiency. Secondly, susceptibility-induced geometric distortions are exacerbated when performing echo-planar imaging (EPI), which is a standard technique in functional studies. This requires receive coils capable of parallel imaging with low noise amplification during image reconstruction. To address these challenges at 7T, this study presents a parallel (8-channel) transmit coil developed for monkey imaging, along with a highly parallel (24-channel) receive coil. RF shimming with the parallel-transmit coil produced significant advantages-the transmit field was 38% more uniform than a traditional circularly polarized mode and 54% more power-efficient, demonstrating that parallel-transmit coils should be used for monkey imaging at ultrahigh field strengths. The receive coil had the ability to accelerate along an arbitrary axis with at least a three-fold reduction factor, thereby reducing geometric distortions in whole-brain EPI.