Uniform prostate imaging and spectroscopy at 7 T: Comparison between a microstrip array and an endorectal coil

摘要

An endorectal coil and an eight-element microstrip array were compared for prostate imaging at 7 T. An extensive radiofrequency safety assessment was performed with the use of finite difference time domain simulations to determine safe scan parameters. These simulations showed that the endorectal coil can deliver substantially more B1+ to the prostate than can the microstrip array within the specific absorption rate safety guidelines. However, the B1+ field of the endorectal coil is very inhomogeneous, which makes the use of adiabatic pulses compulsory for T_1- or T_2-weighted imaging. As a consequence, a full prostate examination is only possible in a feasible amount of time when the microstrip array is used for T_1- and T_2-weighted imaging, whereas the endorectal coil is required for spectroscopic imaging. The pulse parameters were optimised within the specific absorption rate guidelines and thereafter used to provide a good illustration of the possibilities of prostate imaging at 7 T.