Materials and methods for higher performance screen-printed flexible MRI receive coils.
Materials and methods for higher performance screen-printed flexible MRI receive coils.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1002/mrm.26399
复制
发表时间：
2017-08
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Arias AC
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Corea JR;Lechene PB;Lustig M;Arias AC
开发用于表征丝网印刷MRI线圈中使用的材料的方法，并使用新的低损耗材料提高SNR。建立了一个实验装置，用于表征接收线圈中使用的塑料基板的介电性能。线圈通过将导电油墨丝网印刷到几个塑料基板上来制造。使用3 T扫描仪上的空载和样本加载品质因数（QUnloaded/QLoaded）测量和扫描来表征线圈性能。开发了一种实验方法来描述线圈的QUnloaded和它在体模图像中提供的SNR之间的关系。此外，使用概念验证打印的8通道阵列获得了体模和志愿者头部的3 T扫描，并将结果与商业12通道阵列进行了比较。与加载体模上的传统线圈相比，具有优化基板的印刷线圈可以显示高达97%的图像SNR。QUnloaded和线圈的SNR成功关联。印刷阵列产生的图像质量与商业阵列相当。使用所提出的方法和材料，印刷线圈的SNR接近商业线圈的SNR，同时使用新的制造技术，提供更多的灵活性和与患者身体的紧密接触。
To develop methods for characterizing materials used in screen-printed MRI coils and improve SNR with new lower-loss materials. An experimental apparatus is created to characterize dielectric properties of plastic substrates used in receive coils. Coils are fabricated by screen printing conductive ink onto several plastic substrates. Unloaded and sample loaded quality factor (QUnloaded/QLoaded) measurements and scans on a 3T scanner are used to characterize coil performance. An experimental method is developed to describe the relationship between a coil's QUnloaded and the SNR it provides in images of a phantom. Additionally, 3T scans of a phantom and the head of a volunteer are obtained with a proof-of-concept printed 8-channel array and the results are compared to a commercial 12-channel array. Printed coils with optimized substrates can exhibit up to 97% of the image SNR when compared to a traditional coil on a loading phantom. QUnloaded and the SNR of coils are successfully correlated. The printed array results in images comparable to the quality given by the commercial array. With the methods and materials proposed, the SNR of printed coils approaches that of commercial coils while using a new fabrication technique that provides more flexibility and close contact to the patient's body.