A petal resonator volume coil for MR neuroimaging

Abstract

A variant of the petal resonator (PERES) coil was developed for magnetic resonance neuroimaging applications. It is formed by eight \mbox{2 cm-radius} petal coils around a central circular-shaped coil with a total radius of 10 cm. As dictated by the theory proposed by Mansfield in 1988, the small coil centers were separated by three times the petal coil radius to avoid mutual inductance between them. The present configuration can easily accommodate a head shape and can be placed nearer the subject to be imaged than other volume coils. Enhancement factor maps were computed to study the coil design performance based on the PERES coil foundations. Coil uniformity was theoretically investigated using the quasi-static approach for various petal coil radii. An 8-petal band coil was built, and in vivo and in vitro experiments were conducted on a clinical MR imager together with standard imaging sequences. Brain images of a healthy volunteer are reported to show the utility of the coil.