Abstract #0290

Use of "Dark Modes" in a Loop + Dipole Array to Reduce SAR in 7T C-Spine Imaging

Yigitcan Eryaman¹,², Elfar Adalsteinsson³,⁴, Lawrence L. Wald²,⁴

¹Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; ²Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Dept. of Radiology, MGH, Charlestown, MA, United States; ³Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States; ⁴Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States

We demonstrated that dipole elements can be used with loop arrays to reduce the local SAR in spine imaging. We placed dipole elements in the middle of each loop of a previously constructed spine array. Adding excitation by the dipoles did not alter the overall B1+ pattern around the spinal cord significantly, yet the 10 g peak local SAR and the global SAR in a human model was reduced by energizing the dipole elements at 7 T.