Wen-Ju Pan1, Lei Zhou1, Gloria Perrin Clavijo1, Vahid Khalilzad Sharghi1, and Shella Keilholz1
1Biomedical Engineering, Emory University/Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States
1Biomedical Engineering, Emory University/Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, United States
Single loop coil was optimized in 3D shape to fitting rodent
bran geometry and meet the requirement of simultaneous fMRI and optical imaging,
exhibited significant improvement in overall SNR and signal homogeneity especially
in cortical areas and center brain.
Figure 2. Comparison of
single-loop-coil positioning with rat between the 2D- and 3D-shaped. The 3D-shaped
coil base was 3D printed out that fits better to brain geometry than 2D flat
coil. The gap between coil and skull will be muscle and skin that are not shown
in CAD.
Figure 3. Comparison
of image qualities of rat brain between 2D- and 3D-shaped loop coils. Both have
good whole brain coverage but relatively the 3D-shaped loop that fitted better
to brain geometry exhibits higher SNR and better field homogeneity in T2-weighted
and EPI images and Field maps. The 3D-shaped coil may have more efficient
coverage on most brain areas with nearly uniform field signals based on field
biases from T2 weighted images (good homogeneity highlighted in red frames,
prefrontal difference pointed out in arrows on EPI).