Peter A. Wassenaar1, Kathryn Richdale2, Katharine Teal Bluestein1, John Christoforidis3, Titus Lanz4, Michael Vincent Knopp1, Petra Schmalbrock1
1Radiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; 2Optometry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; 3Ophthalmology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; 4Rapid MR International, LLC, Columbus, OH, USA
Ultra-high field MRI allows higher resolution for examination of the fine structures of the eye. This work focuses on the safety testing and implementation of a custom surface coil at 7T. A transmit head coil was used with a 4cm receive coil. Safety was insured through both active and passive decoupling. Testing indicated good homogeneity of the imaging region and signal drop off as expected for the coil diameter. Animal testing demonstrated that tissue heating did not exceed 0.3C, even with high RF power. The use of a custom coil yielded high quality images of the human eye in vivo.