Development of RF coils for low-field portable MRI

To realize a comprehensive community care system in a super-aging society, regular acquisition of medical imaging information is desirable in the community and home environment for preventive and preliminary diagnosis. MRI is suitable in community medicine because of the high soft tissue contrast and no exposure to radiation. MRI using permanent magnet arrays (PMA) has recently been considered an appropriate modality. PMA has a nonlinear magnetic field gradient, and its static field strength is weaker than conventional MRI. Therefore, the RF coil used in PMA-based MRI must have broadband characteristics and low resistance. In this study, we adopted a cylindrical structure for the RF coil, and the optimal combination of parameters was obtained by analyzing several models with different shapes. We fabricated and measured RF coils using these parameters and investigated fabrication feasibility and error factors.