title: GPU-accelerated FDTD modeling of radio-frequency field-tissue interactions in high-field MRI.
abstract: The analysis of high-field RF field-tissue interactions requires high-performance finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) computing. Conventional CPU-based FDTD calculations offer limited computing performance in a PC environment. This study presents a graphics processing unit (GPU)-based parallel-computing framework, producing substantially boosted computing efficiency (with a two-order speedup factor) at a PC-level cost. Specific details of implementing the FDTD method on a GPU architecture have been presented and the new computational strategy has been successfully applied to the design of a novel 8-element transceive RF coil system at 9.4 T. Facilitated by the powerful GPU-FDTD computing, the new RF coil array offers optimized fields (averaging 25% improvement in sensitivity, and 20% reduction in loop coupling compared with conventional array structures of the same size) for small animal imaging with a robust RF configuration. The GPU-enabled acceleration paves the way for FDTD to be applied for both detailed forward modeling and inverse design of MRI coils, which were previously impractical.
authors.affiliation: School of Automation Engineering, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, China. chijieru@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: Jieru
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Ewald
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Crozier
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003198:Computer Simulation; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D051381:Rats