Quadrature coil design for high-resolution carotid artery imaging scores better than a dual phased-array coil design with the same volume coverage

Purpose To evaluate the ability of a custom-built coil design to provide improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and less signal drop with increasing depth at the carotid artery. Materials and Methods Phased-array surface coils can provide a high SNR to image the carotid vessel wall. However, given the required field-of-view (FOV) and penetration depth, these coils show either a fast signal drop with increasing depth or a moderate SNR at increased coil size. A quadrature surface coil (a butterfly coil in conjunction with a linear single-loop coil) was compared with a phased-array coil in phantom and human studies. Results The phantom studies showed that the quadrature coil has better SNR over the required FOV than a standard phased-array coil (26% at 3 cm depth). Conclusion The quadrature coil enables better image quality to be achieved. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.