A PHASED-ARRAY COIL FOR HUMAN CARDIAC IMAGING

A prototype cardiac phased array receiver coil was constructed that co mprised a cylindrical array and a separate planar array. Both arrays h ad two coil loops with the same coil dimensions. Data acquisition with the cylindrical array placed on the human chest, and the planar array placed under the back, yielded an overall enhancement of the signal-t o-noise ratio (SNR) over the entire heart by a factor of 1.1-2.85 over a commercially available flexible coil and a commercially available f our-loop planar phased array coil. This improvement in SNR can be expl oited in cardiac imaging to increase the spatial resolution and reduce the image acquisition time.