Design of Shim Coil Arrays for Improving B0 Homogeneity in Brachial Plexus MRI at 3T

Motivation: Brachial plexus MRI at 3T is challenged by complex B0 inhomogeneities in the neck-shoulder region. Various body shapes and sizes in the population require research efforts to obtain those field distributions and design advanced shim coil arrays with body conditions similar to patients. Goal(s): Design shim coil arrays to minimize B0 inhomogeneities on the neck-shoulder. Approach: Numerical simulations of field distributions were performed based on whole-body CT images in a patient cohort. Multiple designs of shim coil arrays were tested on those field maps. Results: The simulation-derived optimal shim coil arrays substantially reduce B0 inhomogeneities on the neck-shoulder of in vivo-acquired field maps. Impact: B0-simulation-guided shim coil array design provides an efficient and economical way to derive optimized coil geometry that is applicable to patients with various body sizes and shapes, leading to a substantial reduction of B0 inhomogeneity for brachial plexus imaging.