Parallel RF Transmission in Body MRI for Reduced Dielectric Shading, Improved B1 Homogeneity and Accelerated Imaging at 3.0T: Initial Clinical Experience in 40 Patients Using MultiTransmit

Winfried A. Willinek¹, Juergen Gieseke^1,2, Guido Kukuk¹, Michael Nelles¹, Roy Knig¹, Magnus Andersson¹, Daniel Thomas¹, Nushin Morakkabati-Spitz¹, Romhild Hoogeveen², Christiane K. Kuhl¹, Hans H. Schild¹

Electromagnetic wave propagation in tissue is known to cause dielectric resonance effects if the wavelength reaches the object dimension at higher field strength. Multiple transmit channels can provide better control of the RF field by allowing to send independent RF pulses yielding more uniform excitation and receive fields. The clinical usefulness of a parallel RF transmit system with patient-adaptive RF shimming and parallel transmission was tested in 40 patients for liver, pelvis and spine imaging at 3.0T. Parallel RF transmit body MRI allowed for reduced dielectric shading, improved B1 homogeneity and accelerated imaging at 3.0T in a routine clinical setup.