Tijl van der Velden1, Peter R Luijten1, and Dennis W.J. Klomp1
1Radiology, UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
Synopsis
Using multiple local
excitation coils for different parts of the body, such as bilateral breast
coils, opens up the possibility to perform frequency shimming: using multiple
carrier frequencies to excite the different body parts without gradient based
localization. In this work we demonstrate frequency shimming to improve fat
suppressed breast MRI at 7 T.Introduction
Water selective excitation (WSE) is an efficient
means for fat suppressed dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) breast MRI;
particularly at 7 T
1-4. However, despite the availability of 3
rd
order shim and an increased chemical shift between water and fat, residual fat
signal often remains visible
2. The availability of local transmit
arrays for the breasts, opens up capabilities for B
1+
shimming that go beyond phase and amplitude shimming. In this study, we suggest
to employ frequency B
1+ shimming, where the resonance
frequency of the RF pulse can be different between both breasts, improving the
homogeneity of WSE.
Methods
Experiments were performed on a 7 T whole
body MR system (Philips Healthcare, Cleveland, OH) equipped with a 4-element
breast transceiver (MR Coils BV, Drunen, NL). The elements of each breast were driven
in quadrature and connected to a separate 4 kW RF amplifiers. B0
shimming was performed and optimized for either 16 or 17 terms (1st,
2nd and 3rd order and one or two 0th order
terms, separated for left and right breast). The difference between the two 0th
order terms was incorporated as a frequency offset in the RF pulse of one of
the breasts.
Simulations on B0 maps of eight
healthy volunteers were performed to investigate the potential of the proposed
method. To simulate the work flow of the scanner, the resonance frequency was based
on a single breast. Performance of both methods were quantified by assessing the
percentage of voxels in the breast, where fat would experience an excitation of
15% or more of the requested flip angle.
In vivo performance was assessed in healthy
female volunteers. The protocol consisted of two 3D acquisitions; one with
regular WSE (using 16 B0 shim terms), and one with the proposed
method (using 17 B0 shim terms). Both acquisitions had a 1-3-3-1
binomial pulse as WSE pulse. See the table in figure 1 for more parameters.
Results
The B0 maps calculated after B0 and
frequency shimming clearly shows a more uniform frequency distribution when compared
to B0 shimming alone (fig 2a). For all subjects, the addition of frequency
shimming substantially reduced the excitation of lipids (fig 2b).
Figure
3 shows two slices of the same subject, using the regular and the frequency
shimmed fat suppression. Both slices demonstrate the improvement in fat
suppression when incorporating frequency shimming.
Discussion
Simulations and
experiments show the potential of using different excitation frequencies for
each breast in fat suppressed MRI. In contrast to multi-dimensional RF pulses
that incorporate B
0 information, this technique of frequency shimming can be
used without switched B
0 gradients. Consequently, for the short RF pulses used
for spectral-spatial excitation (i.e. < 500
μs for spatial selection), frequency shimming can be applied without effecting the pulse durations.
Conclusion
In bilateral breast MRI where the spins in each
breast can be excited with a separate transmit coil, frequency shimming can be
applied that can improve chemical shift selective excitation for both breasts.
Consequently very efficient fat suppression can be obtained for bilateral
breast MRI at 7T.
Acknowledgements
No acknowledgement found.References
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