Novel 16‐channel receive coil array for accelerated upper airway MRI at 3 Tesla |
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| Authors: | Yoon‐Chul Kim Cecil E. Hayes Shrikanth S. Narayanan Krishna S. Nayak |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA;2. Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA |
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| Abstract: | Upper airway MRI can provide a noninvasive assessment of speech and swallowing disorders and sleep apnea. Recent work has demonstrated the value of high‐resolution three‐dimensional imaging and dynamic two‐dimensional imaging and the importance of further improvements in spatio‐temporal resolution. The purpose of the study was to describe a novel 16‐channel 3 Tesla receive coil that is highly sensitive to the human upper airway and investigate the performance of accelerated upper airway MRI with the coil. In three‐dimensional imaging of the upper airway during static posture, 6‐fold acceleration is demonstrated using parallel imaging, potentially leading to capturing a whole three‐dimensional vocal tract with 1.25 mm isotropic resolution within 9 sec of sustained sound production. Midsagittal spiral parallel imaging of vocal tract dynamics during natural speech production is demonstrated with 2 × 2 mm2 in‐plane spatial and 84 ms temporal resolution. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. |
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| Keywords: | upper airway MRI RF coil design parallel imaging rapid imaging |
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