A multielement RF coil for MRI guidance of interventional devices

Accurate localization of minimally invasive devices is critical to the succ ess of interventional procedures. Device orientation and tip position are t wo of the most important pieces of information needed to define device loca tion for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided interventional procedures. While a single one-element micro coil incorporated into an interventional device has proven to be effective in some applications, it can only supply tip position Information. However, multiple positions on the device are nec essary to also determine its orientation. For this purpose, a novel single micro coil design with three separate winding elements that provides both t he device orientation and tip position is described In this study. Definiti on of MR scan planes, by using the device orientation and the target tissue location, permits automatic tracking of the insertion of the device. Furth ermore, devices that include this coil design are permitted to bend to a li mited extent. This makes the micro coil design appropriate for many flexibl e interventional devices. Reliable near-real-time tracking of three points on an interventional device is demonstrated on a 0.2T MRI system with modes t gradient performance. Phantom and in vivo animal experiments are used to demonstrate the utility of this new coil design. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.