A cryogenic 14-channel 13C receiver array for 3T human head imaging

Purpose This article presents a novel 14-channel receive-only array for C-13 human head imaging at 3 T that explores the SNR gain by operating at cryogenic temperature cooled by liquid nitrogen. Methods Cryostats are developed to evaluate single-coil bench SNR performance and cool the 14-channel array with liquid nitrogen while having enough thermal insulation between the coils and the sample. The temperature distribution for the coil array is measured. Circuits are adapted to the -189 degrees C environment and implemented in the 14-channel array. C-13 images are acquired with the array at cryogenic and room temperature in a 3T scanner. Results Compared with room temperature, the array at cryogenic temperature provides 27%-168% SNR improvement over all voxels and 47% SNR improvement near the image center. The measurements show a decrease of the element noise correlation at cryogenic temperature. Conclusion It is demonstrated that higher SNR can be achieved by cryogenically cooling the 14-channel array. A cryogenic array suitable for clinical imaging can be further developed on the array proposed. The cryogenic coil array is most likely suited for scenarios in which high SNR deep in a head and decent SNR on the periphery are required.

Automated summary

This article introduces a novel 14-channel receive-only array for C-13 human head imaging at 3 T that achieves higher SNR by operating at cryogenic temperature cooled by liquid nitrogen. The array is cooled using cryostats and circuits are adapted to the low temperature environment. Imaging results show significant SNR improvement at cryogenic temperature compared to room temperature. The cryogenic coil array is suitable for scenarios that require high SNR deep in a head and decent SNR on the periphery.