Comparison of Transmit Coil Configurations for Multiple-Mouse MRI with Receive-Only Coils

Marc Filipe Carias¹, John G. Sled¹, Mark R. Henkelman¹, Brian J. Nieman¹

Multiple-mouse MRI (MMMRI) accelerates preclinical studies by imaging multiple mice simultaneously. We explored two possible transmit coil configurations for a MMMRI set up with separate transmit and receive coils: one with individual transmit coils for each mouse and one with a single large transmit coil for all mice. We observed that a single large transmit coil offered excellent image quality and some SNR benefit over the multiple transmit coil case. The large transmit coil is also appropriate for most imaging applications where high B1 field strength is not a requirement.