7 T Cardiac Imaging with Array of Radiative Antennas Compared to Loop Coil Array

Alexander J.E. Raaijmakers¹, Maarten J. Versluis², Sebastian A. Aussenhofer², Hamza El Aidi¹, Peter Luijten¹, Tim Leiner¹, Cornelis A.T. van den Berg¹, Andrew Webb²

Recently, a novel coil array of radiative antennas was introduced for prostate imaging. In this study, the same array is used for cardiac imaging at 7 Tesla. An additional coil array consisting of large loop coils has been constructed for comparison. Both arrays are characterized by FDTD simulations. These show that the array of radiative antennas has much higher B₁⁺ and B₁^- while the array of large loop coils has much lower SAR levels. Cine MR cardiac images have been obtained, showing higher SNR for the array of radiative antennas. With this array the right coronary artery was successfully depicted.