Combining transceiver loops with a conventional receive array increases central SNR in brain imaging at 7T

Motivation: Previous studies have reported central SNR improvements at 7T with dipole transceivers, but not with loops-based arrays. Goal(s): Assess the performance of an 8TxRx56Rx loop-based transceiver array against three conventional 8Tx32/64Rx arrays. Approach: SNR and g-factor maps were acquired from phantom and healthy volunteers for four head coils (1Tx32Rx, 8Tx32Rx, 8Tx64Rx, 8TxRx56Rx) at 7TResults: The modified 8TxRx56Rx coil showed a 12.6% increase in central SNR for in vivo scans. The peripheral SNR and g-factor maps remain comparable to their 8Tx64Rx counterpart, and both 64Rx coils performed significantly better than 32Rx coils at high acceleration factors. Impact: A 56-channel receive 8-channel loop-based transceiver array can improve central image SNR at 7T without compromising g-factor compared to a conventional 64-channel receive 8-channel transmit coil.