Melissa M Ong1, Alexander Schmidt1, Daniel Hausmann1, Stefan O Schoenberg1, and Stefan Haneder1
Although 23Na-MRI can offer additional information regarding
tissue function and viability compared to 1H-MRI several obstacles
have impeded its clinical implementation, including hardware costs and
technical challenges. One step towards a more widespread clinical use of 23Na-MRI
would be the use of double-tuned (1H/23Na) coils. This
would require morphologic and functional images with diagnostic image quality. The
purpose of this study was therefore to prospectively compare image quality of a
double-tuned (1H/23Na) vs. a clinically used 1H
head coil in healthy subjects. Image data of both coils showed excellent image quality
with no significant differences in SNR.