MRI EQUIPMENT

SG 2002

Essentials
Room
Radiofrequency shielding (Faraday Cage) Fringe Field Containment

Static magnetic field (0.15 - 2.0 Tesla) Variable magnetic field - gradients
field coils and amplifiers

Radiofrequency transmitter/receiver coils and amplifiers Computer processing and display

Virtually Essentials
Magnet shielding
passive or active

Shim coils MR compatible trolley

Not essential but nice to have

MR compatible GA and monitoring equipment ECG leads and expansion bellows for cardiac and respiratory gating

Room requirements
Large enough to contain fringe field up to 5 Gauss (0.5mT) line
pacemakers

5 Gauss Line

Completely enclosed in wire mesh excludes radio waves from outside zipper artefact.

Obvious practical considerations

room for trolleys etc

Static magnetic field

Main field, Bo responsible for lining up magnetic moment hydrogen protons, with (parallel) or against field (antiparallel)
Slightly greater than half are lined up with the field. Magnetic moments almost cancel out. The slight excess are the ones we can image (7 in 10million) Proportion increases with increased field strength Improved SNR Is bigger always better?
Increase in some artefacts and T1 acquisition times

Types of magnet
Permanent (up to 0.35 T)
uses magnetised core - like horseshoe magnet permanently on field strength limited by weight of magnet 0.2T field strength
iron 23 tons neodymium alloy 9000 lbs

Electromagnet

Resistive (up to 0.5 T)

normal electromagnet (solenoid) windings have resistance therefore lots of heat generated. Limits the amount of current possible and consequently the strength of the magnet is less. Cooling required. may be switched on and off use lots of electricity - expensive to run Power =I2R Example: 0.15T magnet Requires 200 Amps Equivalent to 50kW

 Superconducting (<2T)
solenoid windings made of Niobium/Titanium alloy immersed in liquid helium (-269C) windings become superconducting i.e. no resistance, therefore very high current possible high field strengths May be thousands of turns (~30km) permanently on unless ramped down or quenched requires regular refills of liquid helium expensive

Quenches
Emergency termination of static field by rapid boil-off of coolant E.g someone pinned to scanner by magnetic object Magnet coil heated - becomes resistive Gases must be vented To be avoided at all costs!

Gradients
Frequency of precession on field strength

wo dependent

wo is given by the Larmor equation wo = Bo x g

Gradients impose additional graded magnetic field on main field

where Bo is the magnetic field strength in Tesla and g is the Gyromagnetic ratio for hydrogen (42.57 MHz/T)

Magnet isocentre

0.98T

1.0T

1.02T

Gradients
This means we can define where an MR signal comes from in space because its frequency will depend on the local field strength Gradient strength measured in mT/m
20mT/m average

Very rapid switching

<500s

Gradient Coils
Three sets required for x,y,z directions z - direction of main field Helmholtz configuration

Gradient Coils
x and y direction Golay or saddle coils

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Radiofrequency (RF) coils

Essential to put radiowaves into patient and to detect signal from precessing protons Should only excite protons within volume of interest Ideally in close proximity to maximise signal detection May be transmit/receive or receive only RF amplifiers - 20kW

Radiofrequency (RF) coils

Built-in body coil Anatomy specific coils - better SNR, less heating
Head Neck Extremity Spine Breast

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Surface coils
Aerial loops placed next to region if interest
High SNR next to coil Small field of view Best for superficial anatomy - TMJ, eye

Volume Coils
Better RF homogeneity Even SNR Saddle, Birdcage configurations

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Phased Array Coils

Array of surface coils joined together Avoids problem of poor coverage Maintains SNR Spine coils

Open low field or closed high field?

Closed - advantages
Usually high field Better field homogeneity Larger field of view Better SNR Better image quality Faster scan times Thinner slices improved spatial resolution Spectroscopy, fMRI, EPI

Closed - disadvantages
Patient unfriendly Claustrophobic Limited access makes interventional techniques difficult Positioning can be difficult Usually noisy Tissue heating (SAR limits) Cryogen refills cooling of gradient power supply

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 Open - advantages
less claustrophobic Patient friendly easier monitoring easier positioning intervention e.g. biopsy, tumour ablation possible quiet low tissue heating

Open - disadvantages
poor SNR longer scan times thicker slices small FOV not capable of some techniques expensive on electricity cooling of magnet power supply

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Field homogeneity
Uniformity of magnetic field
important for accurate spatial registration of MR signal

Better than 1ppm Achieved by addition of pieces of iron (passive shimming) or solenoids (active shimming)

Peripherals
Life sign monitoring Anaesthetic trolley ECG gating leads Respiratory gating bellows

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Cardiac Gating

Non ECG gated

ECG gated

Respiratory Gating

Non respiratory gated

Respiratory gated

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References
Boddy J (1999) High Field Closed MRI Scanners Clinical MRI 8(4) p124-126 Dunne S (1999) Low Field Open MRI Scanners Clinical MRI 8(4) p117-123 Keen M (1999) Lecture Notes on the Physics of MRI Clinical MRI 9(3) p70-81

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