Technical Note: A custom-designed flexible MR coil array for spine radiotherapy treatment planning.

Purpose: To assess the performance and optimize the MR image quality when using a custom-built flexible radiofrequency (RF) spine coil array fitted between the immobilization device and the patient for spine radiotherapy treatment planning.

Methods: A 32 channel flexible custom-designed receive-only coil array has been developed for spine radiotherapy simulation for a 3 T Philips MR scanner. Coil signal-to-noise performance and interactions with standard vendor hardware were assessed.

Whole brain P MRSI at 7T with a dual-tuned receive array.

Purpose: The design and performance of a novel head coil setup for P spectroscopy at ultra-high field strengths (7T) is presented. The described system supports measurements at both the H and P resonance frequencies.

Methods: The novel coil consists of 2, actively detunable, coaxial birdcage coils to give homogeneous transmit, combined with a double resonant 30 channel receive array.

The fractionated dipole antenna: A new antenna for body imaging at 7 Tesla.

Purpose: Dipole antennas in ultrahigh field MRI have demonstrated advantages over more conventional designs. In this study, the fractionated dipole antenna is presented: a dipole where the legs are split into segments that are interconnected by capacitors or inductors.

Methods: A parameter study has been performed on dipole antenna length using numerical simulations.

Radiofrequency configuration to facilitate bilateral breast (31) P MR spectroscopic imaging and high-resolution MRI at 7 Tesla.

Purpose: High-resolution MRI combined with phospholipid detection may improve breast cancer grading. Currently, configurations are optimized for either high-resolution imaging or (31) P spectroscopy. To be able to perform both imaging as well as spectroscopy in a single session, we integrated a (1) H receiver array into a (1) H-(31) P transceiver at 7T.

(31) P MR spectroscopic imaging combined with (1) H MR spectroscopic imaging in the human prostate using a double tuned endorectal coil at 7T.

Purpose: Improved diagnostic sensitivity could be obtained in cancer detection and staging when individual compounds of the choline pool can be detected. Therefore, a novel coil design is proposed, providing the ability to acquire both (1) H and (31) P magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) in patients with prostate cancer.

Methods: A two-element (1) H/(31) P endorectal coil was designed by adjusting a commercially available 3T endorectal coil.

Amide proton transfer imaging of the human breast at 7T: development and reproducibility.

Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) can offer information about protons associated with mobile proteins through the amide proton transfer (APT) effect, which has been shown to discriminate tumor from healthy tissue and, more recently, has been suggested as a prognosticator of response to therapy. Despite this promise, APT effects are small (only a few percent of the total signal), and APT imaging is often prone to artifacts resulting from system instability. Here we present a procedure that enables the detection of APT effects in the human breast at 7T while mitigating these issues.