Michael Nelles1, Roy Knig1, Jrgen Gieseke1,2, Marjolijn Guerand-van Battum2, Marco Nijenhuis2, Guido Kukuk1, Daniel Thomas1, Magnus Andersson1, Beate Koberstein1, Hans Heinz Schild1, Winfried A. Willinek1
1Dept. of Radiology / Neuroradiology, University of Bonn Hospital and Medical School, Bonn, NRW, Germany; 2Philips Healthcare, Best, Netherlands
Parallel RF transmission holds the promise of reducing dielectric resonance effects at high field strengths and enables control of RF distribution to optimize RF deposition. Up to now, parallel RF transmission has not been used or fully tested on routine clinical high-field MR systems. Our study demonstrates that parallel RF transmission in MR imaging of the spinal cord yields a diagnostic image quality readily comparable to that of standard single transmission sequences, while at the same time saving a significant amount of examination time.