Abstract #2382

Large Improvements of RF field Transmission Efficiency and Detection Sensitivity for Ultrahigh-field In vivo 31P MRS using Emerging Technology of Ultrahigh Dielectric Constant Material

Byeong-Yeul Lee¹, Xiao-Hong Zhu¹, Sebastian Rupprecht², Michael T. Lanagan³, Qing X. Yang^2,4, and Wei Chen¹

¹Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States, ²Center for NMR Research, Radiology, The Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States, ³Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State College of Engineering, University Park, PA, United States, ⁴Neurosurgery, The Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, United States

Compared to ¹H MRS, X-nuclei MRS for human application faces two challenges: higher requirement of RF power (thus, higher SAR) for achieving the same RF pulse flip angle due to a relatively lower gyromagnetic ratio, and still limited SNR even at high/ultrahigh field. In this report, we demonstrate that up to 200% SNR gain was achieved with ultra high dielectric constant (uHDC) materials incorporated into the RF volume coil for ³¹P MRS at 7T. Concomitantly, the RF power optimized for acquiring the spectra was significantly reduced by 200%. Our data demonstrated that incorporating uHDC with RF coil can significantly boost SNR and reduce RF transmission power X-nuclei MRS applications on top of using high field strength magnet that has approached to its technologic limits.

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