A semiflexible 64-channel receive-only phased array for pediatric body MRI at 3T

Purpose To design, construct, and validate a semiflexible 64‐channel receive‐only phased array for pediatric body MRI at 3T. Methods A 64‐channel receive‐only phased array was developed and constructed. The designed flexible coil can easily conform to different patient sizes with nonoverlapping coil elements in the transverse plane. It can cover a field of view of up to 44 × 28 cm2 and removes the need for coil repositioning for body MRI patients with multiple clinical concerns. The 64‐channel coil was compared with a 32‐channel standard coil for signal‐to‐noise ratio and parallel imaging performances on different phantoms. With IRB approval and informed consent/assent, the designed coil was validated on 21 consecutive pediatric patients. Results The pediatric coil provided higher signal‐to‐noise ratio than the standard coil on different phantoms, with the averaged signal‐to‐noise ratio gain at least 23% over a depth of 7 cm along the cross‐section of phantoms. It also achieved better parallel imaging performance under moderate acceleration factors. Good image quality (average score 4.6 out of 5) was achieved using the developed pediatric coil in the clinical studies. Conclusion A 64‐channel semiflexible receive‐only phased array has been developed and validated to facilitate high quality pediatric body MRI at 3T. Magn Reson Med 76:1015–1021, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.