Junghwan Kim1, Chanhong Moon1,
Bumwoo Park1, Alessandro Furlan1, Anthony Defranco2,
Tiejun Zhao3, Kyongtae Ty Bae1
1Department of Radiology,
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 2MR
research center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 3MR
Research Support, Siemens Healthcare, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
We have developed a multi-transceiver dual-tuned knee coil at 3T which provides high SNR and imaging depth for sodium and co-register of both proton and sodium imaging in a single session. The coil allowed us to acquire in vivo knee cartilage with high SNR in a clinically acceptable time (~30 minutes total session). Further studies on B1-phase shimming are essential to produce a homogenous B1 field and to test the accuracy and reliability of sodium concentration measurement in knee cartilage.