0000000000170547
AUTHOR
Florian M. Meise
Flip-angle measurement by magnetization inversion: Calibration of magnetization nutation angle in hyperpolarized 3 He magnetic resonance imaging lung experiments
The aim of this work was to establish a new, fast, and robust method of flip-angle calibration for magnetic resonance imaging of hyperpolarized 3He. The method called flip-angle measurement with magnetization inversion is based on acquiring images from periodically inverted longitudinal magnetization created using the spatial modulation of magnetization technique. By measuring the width of the area where the magnetization was inverted by the spatial modulation of magnetization preparation in phase images, the flip angle can be generated using a simple equation. To validate and establish the limits of the proposed method, flip-angle measurement with magnetization inversion acquisitions were …
Pushing the Limit – MRI of the Lung Using Hyperpolarized 3-Helium in Conjunction with Parallel Imaging
Imaging of the lung with hyperpolarized 3He became a well known technique in the last decade. Being able to image ventilation and the microstructure of the lung an increase of SNR and a shortage of scan time is eligible. By using a 32-channel phased array the sensitivity was increased dramatically. High resolution 2D-images with a resolution of 1 × 1 mm2 having a 3 mm slice was realized, showing highly detailed images of the lung. By applying parallel imaging techniques the SNR could be increased and scan time was reduced drastically by using a 2D acceleration of R = 4 × 2 with a 3D-protocol covering the whole lung.
A 20-channel receive-only mouse array coil for a 3 T clinical MRI system
A 20-channel phased-array coil for MRI of mice has been designed, constructed, and validated with bench measurements and high-resolution accelerated imaging. The technical challenges of designing a small, high density array have been overcome using individual small-diameter coil elements arranged on a cylinder in a hexagonal overlapping design with adjacent low impedance preamplifiers to further decouple the array elements. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and noise amplification in accelerated imaging were simulated and quantitatively evaluated in phantoms and in vivo mouse images. Comparison between the 20-channel mouse array and a length-matched quadrature driven small animal birdcage coil sh…
Design and evaluation of a 32-channel phased-array coil for lung imaging with hyperpolarized 3-helium
Imaging with hyperpolarized 3-helium is becoming an increasingly important technique for MRI diagnostics of the lung but is hampered by long breath holds (>20 sec), which are not always applicable in patients with severe lung disease like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or α-1-anti-trypsin deficiency. Additionally, oxygen-induced depolarization decay during the long breath holds complicates interpretation of functional data such as apparent diffusion coefficients. To address these issues, we describe and validate a 1.5-T, 32-channel array coil for accelerated 3He lung imaging and demonstrate its ability to speed up imaging 3He. A signal-to-noise ratio increase of up to a factor…
Three-dimensional mapping of the B 1 field using an optimized phase-based method: Application to hyperpolarized 3 He in lungs
A novel method is presented for the three-dimensional mapping of the B1-field of a transmit radio-frequency MR coil. The method is based on the acquisition of phase images, where the effective flip angle is encoded in the phase of the nonselective hard pulse excitation. The method involves the application of a rectangular composite pulse as excitation in a three-dimensional gradient recall echo to produce measurable phase angle variation. However, such a pulse may significantly increase the radio-frequency power deposition in excess of the standard acceptable SAR limits, imposing extremely long TRs (>100 msec), which would result in acquisition times significantly greater than a single brea…