Tobias Wichmann1, Rainer Kurth2, Christian Geppert2, Alexander Weisser1, Florian Odoj1, Peter M. Jakob3,4, Titus Lanz1
1Rapid Biomedical GmbH, Rimpar, Germany; 2Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany; 3Experimental Physics 5, University Wrzburg, Wrzburg, Germany; 4Magnetic Resonance Bavaria e.V., Wrzburg, Germany
MR imaging has become an important technique for the diagnosis of breast diseases. Crucial for the image quality is the performance of the RF coil. In this study a 16 channel breast phased array coil for 1.5T and 3T each is presented. The coil size is adjustable to match a large variety of breast sizes, thus maintaining high filling factors. Additional elements for explicit axilla coverage are included in the coil. Noise correlation, parallel imaging properties as well as image quality were evaluated. The SNR-performance was compared to a standard 4 channel breast coil.