title: Analysing radio-frequency coil arrays in high-field magnetic resonance imaging by the combined field integral equation method.
abstract: We present the combined field integral equation (CFIE) method for analysing radio-frequency coil arrays in high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Three-dimensional models of coils and the human body were used to take into account the electromagnetic coupling. In the method of moments formulation, we applied triangular patches and the Rao-Wilton-Glisson basis functions to model arbitrarily shaped geometries. We first examined a rectangular loop coil to verify the CFIE method and also demonstrate its efficiency and accuracy. We then studied several eight-channel receive-only head coil arrays for 7.0 T SENSE functional MRI. Numerical results show that the signal dropout and the average SNR are two major concerns in SENSE coil array design. A good design should be a balance of these two factors.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Functional and Molecular Imaging, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA. wangshu@ninds.nih.gov
authors.forename: Shumin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jeff H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Duyn
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008280:Magnetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008954:Models, Biological; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011846:Radio Waves; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014159:Transducers