title: Breathhold imaging of the upper abdomen using a circular polarized-array coil: comparison with standard body coil imaging.
abstract: Current studies emphasize the use of array coils to decrease noise and increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). We applied T1-weighted and T2-weighted standard nonbreathhold spin echo (SE) sequences and T1-weighted FLASH, TurboFLASH, T2-weighted spin-echo time (TSE), and heavily T2-weighted half Fourier acquisition single-shot TSE (HASTE) sequences during breathhold for abdominal imaging in 15 normal volunteers. The breathhold scans were performed using both a standard coil and a circular polarized array coil. We analyzed the signal intensity (SI), SNR, and CNR of abdominal organs in all sequences. SNRs increased in all cases by an overall factor of approximately 3 due to an 8% increase in overall SIs and a 50% decrease in noise when applying the array coil. Although the array-coil FLASH sequence performed at least as well as the respective SE sequence, the SNRs of the array-coil TurboFLASH, TSE breathhold, and HASTE sequences were generally lower. We conclude that array-coil imaging significantly improves fast imaging of the abdomen.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Klinikum Grosshadern, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gauger
authors.forename: N G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Holzknecht
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Lackerbauer
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sittek
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Fiedler
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Petsch
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reiser
mesh_terms: D000005:Abdomen / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D012119:Respiration / Q000502:physiology*