Design and construction of an interchangeable RF coil system for rodent spinal cord MR imaging at 9.4 T

Ming Lu; Gary Drake; Feng Wang; Chaoqi Mu; Li Min Chen; John C Gore; Xinqiang Yan

doi:10.1016/j.mri.2021.09.015

Design and construction of an interchangeable RF coil system for rodent spinal cord MR imaging at 9.4 T

Magn Reson Imaging. 2021 Dec:84:124-131. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2021.09.015. Epub 2021 Oct 5.

Authors

Ming Lu¹, Gary Drake², Feng Wang², Chaoqi Mu³, Li Min Chen², John C Gore⁴, Xinqiang Yan⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Nuclear Equipment and Nuclear Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai, Shandong, China.
² Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA.
³ Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁴ Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
⁵ Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA; Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA. Electronic address: xinqiang.yan@vumc.org.

Abstract

Rodent models of spinal cord injury (SCI) have been widely used in pre-clinical studies. Injuries may occur at different levels of the lumbar and thoracic cord, and the number of segments injured and their depths may vary along the spine. It is thereby challenging to build one universal RF coil that exhibits optimal performance for all spinal cord imaging applications, especially in an animal scanner with small in-bore space and limited hardware configurations. We developed an interchangeable RF coil system for a 9.4 T small animal MRI scanner, in which the users can select an optimal coil specialized for imaging specific parts of a rat spine. We also developed the associated animal management device for immobilization and positioning. The whole system allows ease of RF coil exchange, animal fixation, and positioning, and thus reduces the animal preparation time before the MRI scan significantly. Compared to a commercial general-purpose 2-cm-diameter coil that was used in our previous studies, the specialized coil optimized for Sprague-Dawley rat lumbar spinal cord imaging exhibits up to 2.4 times SNR improvement.

Keywords: Interchangeability; MRI; RF coil; Rodent; Signal-to-noise ratio; Spinal cord.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

Animals
Equipment Design
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
Phantoms, Imaging
Radio Waves*
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Rodentia*
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
Spinal Cord / diagnostic imaging

Grants and funding

R01 NS092961/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/United States