Hybrid phased array for improved internal auditory canal imaging at 3.0-T MR

Armen Kocharian; John I Lane; Matt A Bernstein; Chen Lin; Robert J Witte; John Huston 3rd; Joel P Felmlee

doi:10.1002/jmri.10165

Hybrid phased array for improved internal auditory canal imaging at 3.0-T MR

J Magn Reson Imaging. 2002 Sep;16(3):300-4. doi: 10.1002/jmri.10165.

Authors

Armen Kocharian¹, John I Lane, Matt A Bernstein, Chen Lin, Robert J Witte, John Huston 3rd, Joel P Felmlee

Affiliation

¹ Magnetic Resonance Laboratory, Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic and Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. [email protected]

PMID: 12205586
DOI: 10.1002/jmri.10165

Abstract

Purpose: To develop and evaluate a hybrid phased array for internal auditory canal (IAC) imaging at 3.0 T.

Materials and methods: A hybrid phased array was designed and built as two circular surface receive-only coils combined with a volume transmit-receive birdcage head coil for simultaneous image acquisition. Phantom and volunteer images were obtained to assess the coil performance.

Results: The phantom data show that significant signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement was achieved in the region corresponding to the inner ear, i.e., by a factor of 2.5 compared to the standard head coil data. Volunteer IAC image quality was deemed superior as compared to images acquired at 3.0 T using a standard head coil.

Conclusion: This hybrid array combined with three-dimensional fast spin-echo (FSE) acquisition resulted in improved high spatial resolution IAC imaging.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Ear, Inner / anatomy & histology*
Equipment Design
Humans
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / instrumentation*
Phantoms, Imaging