SNR Improvement of a 13C-Cryo-Coil in Comparison with Room-Temperature Coils

Markus Sack¹, Friedrich Wetterling², Gabriele Ende¹, L R Schad², Wolgang Weber-Fahr¹

Each MR procedure, whether an imaging or spectroscopic method, benefits from an improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This is especially true measuring signals of ¹³C, because the low Larmor frequency and natural abundance result in a reduced SNR. We compared two room-temperature coils with a newly acquired helium cooled low temperature ¹³C-cryo-coil and found a gain of at least 6.3 in phantom measurements. The SNR gain allows considerably shorter acquisition times and higher spatial resolution. Additionally the high Q-factor of the coil allows the application of comparable short RF pulses and thus can increase the bandwidth of the signal excitation.