Development of SENSE optimized RF coil array and its application

SENSE imaging is an advanced MR imaging technique. In SENSE imaging the conventional MR scan time is reduced by partially replacing the phase encoding with RF coil array sensitivity encoding. Because the SNR in SENSE imaging is mostly determined by the RF coil array design, optimizing the RF coil array design to achieve optimum SENSE imaging performance is important.; In this thesis, a novel SENSE RF coil array design method was proposed to find the optimum SENSE RF coil array design with more efficiency and generality. In our approach, we first formulated the SENSE SNR performance of the RF coil array as a function of its geometrical design parameters. And then the design parameters were solved numerically to achieve the desired SENSE SNR performance.; The proposed SENSE RF coil array design method was applied to design an optimized 8-channel rat RF coil array for Magnetic Resonance Electrical Impedance Tomography (MREIT) experiments. In this project, the goal was to improve the spatial resolution of MREIT, without penalties in increased imaging time. Alternatively, MREIT images can be collected in shorter times without sacrificing spatial resolution. The RF coil array designed for this purpose had an SNR that was higher than the birdcage type rat coil. The MREIT phase measurements with SENSE imaging were investigated using the RF coil array. The phase difference images and the conductivity distribution of the phantom were correctly reconstructed. Therefore the optimized RF coil array and the SENSE imaging technique have been successfully applied in MREIT.; With the new developments investigated in this thesis, the SNR, the acquisition speed of the MREIT technique and the accuracy in the conductivity reconstruction were improved, which will facilitate in-vivo animal and human studies.