Emilee Minalga1, Robb Merrill1, Nick Todd1, Allison Payne1, Dennis L. Parker1, J. Rock Hadley1
1Utah Center of Advanced Imaging Research, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
This work describes design and evaluation of a 6-channel brain RF coil for magnetic resonance guided high intensity focused ultrasound. The coil was built to be compatible with a head stereotactic device and a brain magnetic resonance guided high intensity focused ultrasound treatment system. The coil used capacitive decoupling of adjacent loops. The coil is evaluated for SNR performance, temperature imaging performance, and anatomy imaging. The coil was found to give better SNR over both the body coil and a 12-channel commercial head coil. This SNR increase translates to better anatomy imaging and temperature measurements.