Variation in RF shimming SAR with patient position for 3 T breast imaging

This work investigates the variation in peak spatial SAR for RF shimming for different patient positions in the MR scanner for breast imaging. SAR simulations were performed on the Ella human body model in a 3 T 70 cm-diameter RF birdcage coil. Whole body SAR, peak spatial SAR, and SAR ratio (= peak SAR / whole body SAR) were computed for different patient elevations above the table (i.e., the patient lying on top of a breast coil). Patient position has important implications for setting safe RF shimming ranges due to the variations in peak spatial SAR in different patient positions.