Background:
Cardiac magnetic resonance evaluations generally require a radiofrequency
coil setup comprising a transmit whole-body coil and a receive coil. In particular, radiofrequency
phased-array coils are employed to pick up the signals emitted by the nuclei with high signal-tonoise
ratio and a large region of sensitivity.
Methods:
Literature discussed different technical issues on how to minimize interactions between
array elements and how to combine data from such elements to yield optimum Signal-to-Noise Ratio
images. However, image quality strongly depends upon the correct coil position over the heart
and of one array coil portion with respect to the other.
Results:
In particular, simple errors in coil positioning could cause artifacts carrying to an inaccurate
interpretation of cardiac magnetic resonance images.
Conclusion:
This paper describes the effect of array elements misalignment, starting from coil
simulation to cardiac magnetic resonance acquisitions with a 1.5 T scanner.
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Phased-array coil simulation was performed using the magnetostatic approach; moreover, phantom
and in vivo experiments with a commercial 8-elements cardiac phased-array receiver coil permitted
to estimate signal-to-noise ratio and B1 mapping for aligned and shifted coil.
Phased array coil
