Abstract #0780

Aksel B, Collick B, Marinelli L, Barber W, Bottomley P, Hardy C

We have designed, built, and tested a planar gradient set producing gradient fields of 250 mT/m in X and Y, and 500 mT/m in Z at 320 A current. This is an order-of-magnitude increase in performance over present clinical systems, but in a limited field-of-view (FOV). Because FOV is limited, dB/dt levels remain within safe levels so the gradient system can be used for rapid, high-resolution, and efficient diffusion-weighted MRI. Initial imaging experiments on normal volunteers show excellent image quality after correcting for gradient nonlinearity, without excessive coil heating or movement.