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Item Type: | Article |
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Title: | Calibration-free parallel transmission of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spinal cord at 7T |
Creators Name: | Aigner, C.S., Sánchez Alarcon, M.F., D'Astous, A., Alonso-Ortiz, E., Cohen-Adad, J. and Schmitter, S. |
Abstract: | PURPOSE: To address the limitations of spinal cord imaging at ultra-high field (UHF) due to time-consuming parallel transmit (pTx) adjustments. This study introduces calibration-free offline computed universal shim modes that can be applied seamlessly for different pTx RF coils and spinal cord target regions, substantially enhancing spinal cord imaging efficiency at UHF. METHODS: A library of channel-wise relative B(+)(1) maps for the cervical spinal cord (six datasets) and thoracic and lumbar spinal cord (nine datasets) was constructed to optimize transmit homogeneity and efficiency for these regions. A tailored B0 shim was optimized for the cervical spine to enhance spatial magnetic field homogeneity further. The performance of the universal shims was validated using absolute saturation based B(+)(1) mapping and high-resolution 2D and 3D multi-echo gradient-recalled echo (GRE) data to assess the image quality. RESULTS: The proposed universal shims demonstrated a 50% improvement in B(+)(1) efficiency compared to the default (zero phase) shim mode. B(+)(1) homogeneity was also improved by 20%. The optimized universal shims achieved performance comparable to subject-specific pTx adjustments, while eliminating the need for lengthy pTx calibration times, saving about 10 min per experiment. CONCLUSION: The development of universal shims represents a significant advance by eliminating time-consuming subject-specific pTx adjustments. This approach is expected to make UHF spinal cord imaging more accessible and user-friendly, particularly for non-pTx experts. |
Keywords: | 7 Tesla, Calibration-Free, Parallel Transmission, Spinal Cord, Universal Pulse |
Source: | Magnetic Resonance in Medicine |
ISSN: | 0740-3194 |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Volume: | 92 |
Number: | 4 |
Page Range: | 1496-1510 |
Date: | October 2024 |
Official Publication: | https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.30137 |
PubMed: | View item in PubMed |
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