| Affiliation: | (1) Department of Radiology (430), University Medical Centre Nijmegen, 9101, 6500, HB, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;(2) Department of Paediatric Neurology, University Medical Centre Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;(3) Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands |
| Abstract: | 1H magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy is a useful tool to obtain metabolic information from the brain in paediatric patients. To detect signals of metabolites at low concentrations or from small volumes, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) has to be optimized. The SNR can be increased by going to higher field strengths. However, this leads to higher spectral bandwidths, which increases the chemical shift artefact. Here we present a transmit/receive headcoil which is adapted to the dimensions of the paediatric head and enables PRESS localization with high radio-frequency (RF) bandwidths that minimize the chemical shift displacement to only 5%. In addition, since the pulse lengths are shorter with higher RF bandwidths, the echo time can be reduced to 10 ms improving SNR as well.Parts of this work have been presented at the European Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology in Rotterdam in 2003 |
