An Exploration of Parallel Imaging System for Very-low Field (50mT) MRI Scanner

Motivation: The prolonged scanning time of very-low field (VLF) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners diminishes both patient comfort and operational efficiency. Goal(s): Our objective was to cut scanning time by half. Approach: We developed a parallel imaging (PI) technique containing an eight-channel phased-array coil and parallel imaging (PI) method tailored for VLF MRI scanners. Results: Head imaging experiments on healthy volunteers demonstrated that the proposed PI technique outperformed two commonly used PI methods, enabling the VLF MRI scanner to achieve comparable image quality with a 72.5% increase in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) relative to fully sampled images, while reducing the scanning time by over 50%. Impact: We introduce, for the first time, a PI technique specifically tailored for VLF MRI scanners. This technique halves the scanning time, which could be especially beneficial for stroke patients requiring VLF MRI assessments.