Surface coil for MR imaging of the skin

A strategy for the design of surface coils for the imaging of extended superficial planar anatomic structures including skin and subcutaneous fat is presented. The central concept is to create an array of closely spaced coplanar radiofrequency current filaments parallel to BO, the polarizing field, with opposite current directions in adjacent filaments. A specific coil design with four such filaments for imaging at 1.5 T is presented. It consists of two pairs of counterrotating current (CRC) coils. Phantom images as well as representative images of normal skin are shown.