Custom-Fitted 16-Channel Bilateral Breast Coil

MR receive coils with a higher number of channels generate images with higher signal-to-noise ratio and allow for accelerated imaging. In 2009, we constructed a 16-channel fitted breast coil, compared it to a standard 8-channel coil, and demonstrated these improvements in vivo. Commercial 16-channel coils are now available, and are becoming the standard for breast MRI.

Nnewihe A, Grafendorfer T, Daniel BL, Calderon P, Alley MT, Robb F, Hargreaves B. Custom-fitted 16-channel bilateral breast coil for bidirectional parallel imaging. Magn Reson Med. 2011 Jul;66(1):281-9.

Online Journal Article

A 16-channel fitted phased-array breast coil that enables higher spatial-resolution MRI.  Post-contrast T1-weighted images in a patient with suspected ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) using this coil, acquired in 3 minute.  The resolution (pixel volume) is a factor of 10 smaller than most protocols, and clearly shows a vessel with 0.3 mm diameter (arrow).  Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) maps show a 3-5x improvement across the breast compared with the standard 8-channel coils.

Bruce Daniel
Professor of Radiology (Body Imaging) and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering
bdaniel@stanford.edu
Marcus Alley
Senior Research Scientist - Physical, Rad/Radiological Sciences Laboratory
mtalley@stanford.edu
Brian A. Hargreaves
Professor of Radiology (Radiological Sciences Laboratory) and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering and of Bioengineering
(650) 498-5368
bah@stanford.edu

Anderson Nnewihe is an alumnus of the BMR group