Roemer Reconstruction Yields Significant SNR Gain Over Sum-Of-Squares @ 7T.

Anna Andreychenko¹, Sjoerd Crijns¹, Ingmar Voogt¹, Wouter Koning¹, Peter Luijten¹, Jan J. W. Lagendijk¹, Cornelis A. T. van Den Berg¹

The SNR differences between optimal SNR, magnitude SNR and Sum-of-Squares (SoS) signal combination methods for an array of multiple receiver coil are generally thought to be modest. However, at high fields wave propagation effects arise which can significantly degrade SNR in the images reconstructed with the SoS. Here we have demonstrated both, theoretically and experimentally that optimal signal combination at high field (7T) is beneficial as it can considerably increase image SNR whereas at low field (1.5 T) there is no relevant SNR gain.