A SNR and contrast comparison study at 0.11T, 0.25T, 1.5T and 3T MRI systems

Low-field MRI systems have seen a renaissance recently due to improvements in technology and its low costs. However, properties like SNR, T1 and T2 values of low fields have caused a lot of concern because they always change with field strengths. This study conducted the SNR comparison based on phantom and fitted the quantitative mapping of human brains at 0.11T, 0.25T, 1.5T and 3T to design a set of protocols enabling similar contrasts of the typical clinical images at different fields. The impacts of lowered magnetic field strengths on imaging quality were shown in this study.