Magnetron Surface Coil for Brain MR Imaging

A resonator surface coil was developed for magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and tested on a clinical imager. This resonator design was based on the cavity magnetron with an 8 slot-and-hole configuration. High-resolution brain images were obtained from a water-filled phantom and from a healthy volunteer brain. To compare coil performance, SNR-vs.-depth plots were computed for a single-loop coil and the magnetron prototype from phantom images. These experimentally acquired profiles show an important improvement in SNR. Thus, the magnetron surface coil can generate brain images with a high resolution and penetration capacity. The high sensitivity of this coil makes it a good candidate to be used in multicoil imaging sequences.