Improved vessel depiction of the cartoid arteries and bifurcation with a specialized 16-channel phased array coil

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a robust imaging modality that can utilize specialized receive only coils (antennas designed to be sensitive in the near field). The purpose of this thesis is to design and construct a multichannel receive-only RF coil for 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging of the human carotid artery and bifurcation with optimized signal to noise ratio (SNR) in the carotid vessels along the full extent of the neck. A neck phantom designed to match the anatomy of a subject with a thick short neck, representing a body habitus often seen in subjects with carotid arterial disease, was constructed. Sixteen circular coil elements were arranged on a semi-rigid fiberglass former that closely fit the shape of the phantom, resulting in a 16-channel bilateral phased array coil. Comparisons made between this coil and a four-channel carotid coil in a study of 10 carotid vessels in 5 healthy volunteers showed a 70% average improvement in signal to noise ratio (SNR) at the bifurcation with the 16-channel carotid coil. This coil also maintains an SNR greater than the peak SNR of the four-channel coil over a vessel length of 10 cm. This increase in SNR results in improved vessel depiction of the carotid arteries over an extended field of view, and demonstrates better image quality for higher parallel imaging reduction factors compared to the four-channel coil.