Coil evaluation for abdominal imaging of hyperpolarized 13C-pyruvate

Motivation: Clamshell coils are widely used for hyperpolarized 13C-MRI but have limitations in obesity and with widely disseminated disease. Goal(s): To evaluate a 4-rung birdcage in conjunction with 2 receive arrays (25 total channels) with ~50cm coverage. Approach: Artifacts, SNR and noise correlations were evaluated using phantoms and the performance of the hardware was shown in a hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate volunteer examination. Results: The transmit efficiency was acceptable, albeit less when the receive arrays were present, and sporadic spikes were observed. The receive arrays showed SNR benefits relative to birdcage T/R and to previous configurations. Good images were obtained in vivo. Impact: This body multi-channel array setup enables 13C studies of diseases which may otherwise not be evaluable with clamshell coils. For example, ovarian cancer is widely disseminated through the abdomen and obesity is a strong risk factor.