Emilee Minalga1, Allison Payne1, Nick Todd1, Robb Merrill1, Dennis L. Parker1, J. Rock Hadley1
1Utah Center of Advanced Imaging Research, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
This work describes the design of an open access 3-channel brain RF coil for interventional MR imaging. The coil was built to be compatible with a head stereotactic device and uses capacitive decoupling of adjacent loops. The coil is evaluated for SNR performance, temperature imaging performance, and a comparison of anatomy scans. The coil was found to give better SNR over both the body coil and a 12-channel commercial coil. This SNR increase translates to better anatomy imaging and temperature measurements.