Development of a newly designed surface coil for maxillofacial MR imaging

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Magnetic resonance imaging is becoming an essential diagnostic modality in recognizing the extent and nature of the lesion.In the diagnosis of maxillofacial lesions, wide area imaging is required with keeping good image quality. Especially when contrast enhancement is applied in malignancies, region including infraorbital to supraclavicular area should be taken simultaneously without changing receiver coils.In this investigation, a new surface coil suitable for the maxillofacial imaging was developed. Distribution of signal intensity in the head and nack region was also evaluated.This coil is basically consisted of three rectangular loops. The first rectangular loop is symmetric, covers both eyebrows to ears, then runs on sternocleidomastoid muscles and joins at sternoclavicular joint. The second and third loops are attached to the first loop and covers both parotid glands.For the evaluation of the signal intensities, the coil was attached to a human body shaped acrylic phantom containing copper sulfate solution and 42 axial transverse images through orbit to sternoclavicular joint was obtained. Based on the signal intensity in the sagittal image of the phantom, each image was calibrated and spatial signal intensity distribution was evaluated.The conventional head coil and neck coil were also evaluated by the same way for the comparison.As a result the new coil gave sufficient quality for the maxillofacial imaging.