A dedicated RF coil design for 31P MRS in the occipital lobe at 3T

Motivation: The occipital lobe is the site of a variety of brain diseases. 31P MRS can noninvasively detect the metabolites to monitor and diagnose related diseases timely. Goal(s): To collect 31P MRS signals in the occipital lobe at 3T, the dedicated RF coil setup is designed as a double-channel transceiver integrated surface coil. Approach: The coil was designed as a "pillow” and verified by finite element simulation, physical production, bench tests and phantom experiments. Results: The coil showed good uniformity and strong magnetic field intensity at the imaging region. Scanning with phantom, the spectral lines had a smooth baseline, high peaks, and excellent SNR. Impact: we propose a transceiver and transmitter integrated surface coil for 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the occipital lobe, which provides an excellent signal-to-noise ratio for excitation and acquisition of 31P spectral signals at 3T.