• Gregory Chang, Graham C Wiggins, Ding Xia, Riccardo Lattanzi, Guillaume Madelin, Jose G Raya, Matthew Finnerty, Hiroyuki Fujita, Michael P Recht, and Ravinder R Regatte.
• Quantitative Multinuclear Musculoskeletal Imaging Group, Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, New York 10016, USA. gregory.chang@nyumc.org
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2012 Feb 1; 35 (2): 441-8.

PurposeTo compare a new birdcage-transmit, 28-channel receive array (28-Ch) coil and a quadrature volume coil for 7T morphologic MRI and T2 mapping of knee cartilage.Materials And MethodsThe right knees of 10 healthy subjects were imaged on a 7T whole body magnetic resonance (MR) scanner using both coils. 3D fast low-angle shot (3D-FLASH) and multiecho spin-echo (MESE) sequences were implemented. Cartilage signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), thickness, and T2 values were assessed.ResultsSNR/CNR was 17%-400% greater for the 28-Ch compared to the quadrature coil (P ≤ 0.005). Bland-Altman plots show mean differences between measurements of tibial/femoral cartilage thickness and T2 values obtained with each coil to be small (-0.002 ± 0.009 cm / 0.003 ± 0.011 cm) and large (-6.8 ± 6.7 msec/-8.2 ± 9.7 msec), respectively. For the 28-Ch coil, when parallel imaging with acceleration factors (AF) 2, 3, and 4 was performed SNR retained was: 62%-69%, 51%-55%, and 39%-45%.ConclusionA 28-Ch knee coil provides increased SNR/CNR for 7T cartilage morphologic imaging and T2 mapping. Coils should be switched with caution during clinical studies because T2 values may differ. The greater SNR of the 28-Ch coil could be used to perform parallel imaging with AF2 and obtain similar SNR as the quadrature coil.Copyright © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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