Hyperpolarised [1-13C]pyruvate is a non-ionizing biomarker to monitor treatment response in various disorders, such as tumours or ischemia. However, this marker has mainly been explored in rodent models and yet has to unfold its clinical potential [1,2]. A recent study in humans for prostate cancer shows the great clinical potential [3]. Despite signal enhancements of 4-5 orders of magnitude, metabolic imaging with hyperpolarised substances still suffers from low SNR, placing tight limits on achievable resolution. Therefore, novel 13C RF coil designs optimized for the different applications are required for maximising SNR during acquisition. Whole-body scanners are optimised for proton imaging, hence requiring compatibility with proton coils and 13C transmit coils. The goal of this work was to develop, implement and evaluate a dedicated coil combination for cardiac and abdominal applications. The setup consists of a novel 13C transmit-only clamshell coil combined with two flexible paddles with each 8 receive-only 13C channels.A bore-insertable 13C volume resonator (f0=32.12 MHz) integrated into the patient table was used for excitation (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI, USA) [3,4]. It can be opened and closed like a clamshell for convenient patient handling and has two linearly-polarised, approximately planar and rectangular elements with geometry of 28.5×28.5 cm² using 1.9 cm wide copper stripes. A flip angle of 90° (0.5 ms block pulse) can be reached with an 8 kW broadband amplifier. Two flexible foam paddles with 8 receive channels each ensure good coverage of the object with high SNR (Rapid Biomedical, Rimpar, Germany). Each receive (Rx) element has a rectangular shape of 6×13 cm², while the whole paddle has a geometry of 25×25 cm². Multiple proton traps on both transmit (Tx) and Rx resonators ensure compatibility of the 13C setup with the proton body coil, which can be used for regular 1H scans. All experiments were performed on a 3T HDx whole-body MRI scanner (GE Healthcare), using modified MRI pulse sequences with postprocessing being performed in Matlab and Osirix. Two healthy 30 kg female Danish landrace pigs were sedated with an intramuscular injection of Stressnil (2.0 mg/kg bodyweight) and Midazolam (0.1 ml/kg) and anaesthetised via intravenous injection of Propofol (12 mg initial dose, 0.4 mg/kg/h for maintaining it) and Fentanyl (8 μg/kg/h) for pain relief. The pigs were intubated and mechanically ventilated (60% O₂) with a respirator. Four identical samples of 600 mg of [1-13C]pyruvic acid were polarised in a SpinLab (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI, USA) for ≥2½ hours to >30% polarisation [5]. Forty mL of 240mM hyperpolarised pyruvate solution was injected into the pig via a femoral vein catheter. Metabolic images were acquired using an IDEAL spiral CSI sequence (nTE=11, ΔTE=0.9 ms, 2D multi-slice) [6]. Kidney data was acquired with TR=250 ms (dynamic acquisition with 3 s for full encoding), FOV=30×30 cm², resolution=75×75, slice thickness=4 cm, flip angle=10°. The scan of the heart was cardiac triggered, while breathing was stopped for ~½ minute during the acquisition (FOV=24×24 cm², resolution=60×60, oblique short-axis view, slice thickness=20 mm, flip angle=20°).The 13C coil setup is shown in Fig. 1 and shows good interaction with the large animal model and easy installation. The 16 Rx channel show good SNR and low noise correlation (mean=13%, max=38%; min=0.32%; Fig. 2), while the multiple Rx coil elements increase the possibilities for accelerated MR acquisitions via parallel imaging. Kidney and heart images are shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. The setup proved to be robust and handling convenient, hence well suited for future clinical studies as well.