Design of a SENSE‐optimized high‐sensitivity MRI receive coil for brain imaging

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Abstract
An 8‐channel receive‐only detector array was developed for SENSE MRI of human brain. The coil geometry was based on a gapped element design and used ultra‐high impedance preamplifiers for mutual decoupling of the elements. Computer simulations of the electric and magnetic fields showed that excellent signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) and SENSE performance could be achieved by placing the coil elements close to the head and maintaining a substantial gap between the elements. Measurements with a 1.5 T prototype coil showed a 2.7‐fold improvement of the SNR averaged over the brain compared to a conventional quadrature birdcage receive coil and an average geometrical noise amplification factor (g‐value) of 1.06 and 1.38 for rate‐2 and rate‐3 SENSE, respectively. Magn Reson Med 47:1218–1227, 2002. Published 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.