RF Pre-emphasis for suppression of coil-to-coil coupling in multiple-mouse MRI

Motivation: Large-scale multiple-mouse MRI studies have deepened our understanding of neurobiology in mouse models of disease. At high magnet field strengths and coil packing density, coil-to-coil transmit coupling can degrade image quality. Goal(s): Implement a methodology to reduce the effects of transmit coupling in multiple-mouse MRI experiments. Approach: We propose to employ empirically tuned RF pre-emphasis waveforms to correct transmitted RF waveforms in a high-field, high coil-density scenario. Results: RF pre-emphasis effectively eliminated the excitation effects of transmit coupling in a two-coil test case, demonstrating the capability of improving transmit RF fidelity for multiple-mouse MRI coil arrays. Impact: Multiple-mouse MRI enables high-throughput pre-clinical studies. Implementations at high-field may show a greater degree of coil-to-coil coupling that reduces image quality. We present a compensation strategy to reduce these effects and improve image quality for high-throughput studies.