Stretchable receive coil for 7T small animal MRI

Area of Science:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Biomedical Engineering
• Small Animal Imaging

Background:

• Traditional small animal MRI receive coils are rigid and do not conform to anatomical structures.
• Stretchable coil technology, successful in human imaging, has not been widely applied to small animal MRI.
• There is a need for improved coil designs to enhance image quality in small animal research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate the application and performance of stretchable MRI coils for small animal imaging at 7 Tesla (7T).
• To compare the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and penetration depth of a novel stretchable coil against traditional coils.
• To evaluate the feasibility of using stretchable coils for acquiring detailed anatomical images of rat brains and spines.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 3.5 × 3.5 cm stretchable MRI coil.
• Comparison of SNR maps with a traditional flexible printed circuit board (PCB) coil and a commercial surface coil.
• Conducting stretch and conformance testing of the developed coil.
• Acquisition of ex vivo rat brain and spine images using T1 FLASH and T2 Turbo RARE sequences.
• Characterization of an open-source plug-and-play system for interfacing coils with a 7T Bruker scanner.

Main Results:

• The stretchable coil demonstrated 48.5% and 42.8% higher SNR for T1-weighted and T2-weighted images, respectively, compared to the commercial coil.
• A 33% increase in average penetration depth was observed within the region of interest (ROI) using the stretchable coil.
• Ex vivo images revealed distinguishable anatomical details in rat brains and spines.
• Stretching the coil decreased resonant frequency and SNR, while conformance to sample volume increased resonant frequency and decreased SNR.

Conclusions:

• Stretchable MRI coils offer significant advantages for small animal imaging at 7T, including enhanced SNR and penetration depth.
• The developed coil technology enables acquisition of high-resolution anatomical images in small animal models.
• The study provides an open-source system, facilitating wider adoption of advanced coil technology in the research community.