Robb Merrill1, J. Rock Hadley1, Emilee Minalga1, Dennis Parker1, Sathya Vijayakumar1, Seong-Eun Kim Choi1, Laura Bell1, John Rose2,3
1Dept. of Radiology (UCAIR), Salt Lake City, UT, USA; 2Neurovirology Laboratory VASLCHCS; 3Brain Institute
This work describes an RF coil optimized for imaging the Optic Nerve on a Siemens 3T MRI scanner. The coil was constructed using two fiberglass formers that fit together to maintain close coupling near the eyes for any arbitrary head size. The 28 coil elements were circular, constructed from 14-gauge wire, and arranged in a soccer ball layout to surround the entire head. Phantom studies showed that the coil provided ~35% greater rSNR at the optic chiasm and ~300% near the orbits compared to the 12-channel commercial coil. The improvement in rSNR allows performance of high resolution DTI.