A Novel Method to Decrease Electric Field and SAR Using an External High Dielectric Sleeve at 3T Head MRI: Numerical and Experimental Results

We present experimental and numerical simulation results showing that high dielectric materials (HDMs) located outside of a RF head coil decrease the electric field (E-field, |E|) with minimum change of the RF magnetic field (B1+) at 3T MRI imaging. Compared to previous research using HDMs located between the RF coil and sample, our method locating the HDM outside the coil allowed an increased sample size and more flexibility of HDM thickness optimization. Numerical simulation results showed more than 30% decrease in the local SAR at the boundary region of the head model. Validating experimental results showed a 21% decrease in the maximum |Etotal| using a HDM made of distilled water.Copyright © 2013 by ASME