Dataset Information

A 12-channel flexible receiver coil for accelerated tongue imaging.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

MRI of the tongue requires acceleration to minimise motion artefacts and to facilitate real-time imaging of swallowing. To accelerate tongue MRI, we designed a dedicated flexible receiver coil.

Materials and methods

We designed a flexible 12-channel receiver coil for tongue MRI at 3T and compared it to a conventional head-and-neck coil regarding SNR and g-factor. Furthermore, two accelerated imaging techniques were evaluated using both coils: multiband (MB) diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) and real-time MRI of swallowing.

Results

The flexible coil had significantly higher SNR in the anterior (2.1 times higher, P = 0.002) and posterior (2.0 times higher, P < 0.001) parts of the tongue, while the g-factor was lower at higher acceleration. Unlike for the flexible coil, the apparent diffusion coefficient (P = 0.001) and fractional anisotropy (P = 0.008) deteriorated significantly while using the conventional coil after accelerating DTI with MB. The image quality of real-time MRI of swallowing was significantly better for hyoid elevation (P = 0.029) using the flexible coil.

Conclusion

Facilitated by higher SNR and lower g-factor values, our flexible tongue coil allows faster imaging, which was successfully demonstrated in MB DTI and real-time MRI of swallowing.

SUBMITTER: Voskuilen L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7351800 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

A 12-channel flexible receiver coil for accelerated tongue imaging.

Voskuilen Luuk L de Heer Paul P van der Molen Lisette L Balm Alfons J M AJM van der Heijden Ferdinand F Strijkers Gustav J GJ Smeele Ludi E LE Nederveen Aart J AJ

Magma (New York, N.Y.) 20200116 4

<h4>Objective</h4>MRI of the tongue requires acceleration to minimise motion artefacts and to facilitate real-time imaging of swallowing. To accelerate tongue MRI, we designed a dedicated flexible receiver coil.<h4>Materials and methods</h4>We designed a flexible 12-channel receiver coil for tongue MRI at 3T and compared it to a conventional head-and-neck coil regarding SNR and g-factor. Furthermore, two accelerated imaging techniques were evaluated using both coils: multiband (MB) diffusion-ten ...[more]

PMID: 31950389

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Project description:Background Screen-printed MRI coil technology may reduce the need for bulky and heavy housing of coil electronics and may provide a better fit to patient anatomy to improve coil performance. Purpose To assess the performance and caregiver and clinician acceptance of a pediatric-sized screen-printed flexible MRI coil array as compared with conventional coil technology. Materials and Methods A pediatric-sized 12-channel coil array was designed by using a screen-printing process. Element coupling and phantom signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were assessed. Subjects were scanned by using the pediatric printed array between September and November 2017; results were compared with three age- and sex-matched historical control subjects by using a commercial 32-channel cardiac array at 3 T. Caregiver acceptance was assessed by asking nurses, technologists, anesthesiologists, and subjects or parents to rate their coil preference. Diagnostic quality of the images was evaluated by using a Likert scale (5 = high image quality, 1 = nondiagnostic). Image SNR was evaluated and compared. Results Twenty study participants were evaluated with the screen-printed coil (age range, 2 days to 12 years; 11 male and nine female subjects). Loaded pediatric phantom testing yielded similar noise covariance matrices and only slightly degraded SNR for the printed coil as compared with the commercial coil. The caregiver acceptance survey yielded a mean score of 4.1 ± 0.6 (scale: 1, preferred the commercial coil; 5, preferred the printed coil). Diagnostic quality score was 4.5 ± 0.6. Mean image SNR was 54 ± 49 (paraspinal muscle), 78 ± 51 (abdominal wall muscle), and 59 ± 35 (psoas) for the printed coil, as compared with 64 ± 55, 65 ± 48, and 57 ± 43, respectively, for the commercial coil; these SNR differences were not statistically significant (P = .26). Conclusion A flexible screen-printed pediatric MRI receive coil yields adequate signal-to-noise ratio in phantoms and pediatric study participants, with similar image quality but higher preference by subjects and their caregivers when compared with a conventional MRI coil. © RSNA, 2019 Online supplemental material is available for this article. See also the editorial by Lamb in this issue.

Project description:Flexible radiofrequency coils for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have garnered attention in research and industrial communities because they provide improved accessibility and performance and can accommodate a range of anatomic postures. Most recent flexible coil developments involve customized conductors or substrate materials and/or target applications at 3 T or above. In contrast, we set out to design a flexible coil based on an off-the-shelf conductor that is suitable for operation at 0.55 T (23.55 MHz). Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) degradation can occur in such an environment because the resistance of the coil conductor can be significant with respect to the sample. We found that resonating a commercially available RG-223 coaxial cable shield with a lumped capacitor while the inner conductor remained electrically floating gave rise to a highly effective "cable coil." A 10-cm diameter cable coil was flexible enough to wrap around the knee, an application that can benefit from flexible coils, and had similar conductor loss and SNR as a standard-of-reference rigid copper coil. A two-channel cable coil array also provided good SNR robustness against geometric variability, outperforming a two-channel coaxial coil array by 26 and 16% when the elements were overlapped by 20-40% or gapped by 30-50%, respectively. A 6-channel cable coil array was constructed for 0.55 T knee imaging. Incidental cartilage and bone pathologies were clearly delineated in T1- and T2-weighted turbo spin echo images acquired in 3-4 min with the proposed coil, suggesting that clinical quality knee imaging is feasible in an acceptable examination timeframe. Correcting for T1, the SNR measured with the cable coil was approximately threefold lower than that measured with a 1.5 T state-of-the-art 18-channel coil, which is expected given the threefold difference in main magnetic field strength. This result suggests that the 0.55 T cable coil conductor loss does not deleteriously impact SNR, which might be anticipated at low field.

Dataset Information

A 12-channel flexible receiver coil for accelerated tongue imaging.

Objective

Materials and methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

A 12-channel flexible receiver coil for accelerated tongue imaging.

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