Christof Thalhammer1,2,
Wolfgang Renz1,3, Harald Pfeiffer4, Jan Rieger1,
Lukas Winter1, Fabian Hezel1, Frank Seifert4,
Werner Hoffmann4, Reiner Seemann4, Thoralf Niendorf1,5
1Berlin
Ultrahigh Field Facility, Max-Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine,
Berlin, Germany; 2University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany; 3Siemens
Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany; 4Physikalisch-Technische
Bundesanstalt (PTB), Braunschweig & Berlin, Germany; 5Experimental
& Clinical Research Center (ECRC), Charit Campus Buch, Berlin, Germany
Ultrahigh field cardiac MR is challenged by non-uniform B1+distributions. A two-dimensional 16-channel transceive surface coil array based on loop elements is proposed to improve B1+homogeneity and parallel imaging for cardiac MR at 7 T. The RF characteristics were satisfying without the need for subject-specific tuning and matching. MR images were acquired showing a rather uniform intensity over the whole cardiac region and a high myocardium/blood contrast without subject-specific B1+shimming.