A Flexible Coil Based on a Cable Conductor for 0.55T Head Imaging

Flexible coils have the potential to improve SNR over rigid coils but have been rarely applied to head imaging. We built a flexible 13-channel coil for 0.55T based on RG-223 cable loops arranged with dodecahedral geometry. The coil closely fit the head and provided 30-50% SNR gain in the ventricles and significant image quality improvements over a conventional rigid coil. While the current minimalistic prototype coil showed promising performance, practical advances, such as an insulating layer that can be easily sanitized and a structure to immobilize the head, must be integrated to make the coil user friendly.