A new RF transmit coil for foot and ankle imaging at 7T MRI

A four-channel Tic-Tac-Toe (TTT) transmit RF coil was designed and constructed for foot and ankle imaging at 7T MRI. Numerical simulations using an in-house developed FDTD package and experimental analyses using a homogenous phantom show an excellent agreement in terms of B-1(+) field distribution and s-parameters. Simulations performed on an anatomically detailed human lower leg model demonstrated an B-1(+) field distribution with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 23.9%/15.6%/28.8% and average B-1(+) of 0.33 mu T/0.56 mu T/0.43 mu T for 1 W input power (i.e., 0.25 W per channel) in the ankle/calcaneus/mid foot respectively. In-vivo B-1(+) mapping shows an average B-1(+) of 0.29 mu T over the entire foot/ankle. This newly developed RF coil also presents acceptable levels of average SAR (0.07 W/kg for 10 g per 1 W of input power) and peak SAR (0.34 W/kg for 10 g per 1 W of input power) over the whole lower leg. Preliminary in-vivo images in the foot/ankle were acquired using the T2-DESS MRI sequence without the use of a dedicated receive-only array.