A 60-channel high-density flexible receive array for pediatric abdominal MRI

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics

Background:

• Conventional MRI coils provide limited parallel imaging performance in pediatric patients.
• Accelerated MRI acquisition is crucial for reducing scan times and motion artifacts in children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance MRI imaging acceleration for pediatric patients at 3 Tesla (3T) using a dedicated, flexible, high-density coil design.
• To address the suboptimal performance of standard MRI coils in young children.

Main Methods:

• Design and construction of a highly flexible small loop array with a dual-turn loop configuration.
• Utilized full-wave simulation, miniature feedboard allocation, and optimized cable management.
• Evaluated performance using phantom experiments and in-vivo studies on adult and pediatric volunteers, comparing against commercial coils.

Main Results:

• The dual-turn loop configuration demonstrated higher preamp decoupling impedance compared to single-turn loops.
• The flexible coil array supported a wide range of critical overlap, essential for adaptability.
• Both phantom and in-vivo studies showed superior parallel imaging performance and high spatial resolution with the small loop array.

Conclusions:

• A dedicated high-density coil array with minimized interference enables a flexible form factor and higher imaging accelerations.
• The developed coil array shows promising results for improving the efficiency of routine clinical imaging in pediatric patients.
• This innovation has the potential to enhance diagnostic accuracy and patient comfort during MRI scans.