A dual-tuned 17 O/ 1 H head array for direct brain oximetry at 3 Tesla.

Purpose: To design and build a dual-tuned O-17/H-1 coil for direct brain oximetry at 3T. Methods: A dual-tuned O-17/H-1 coil comprising 2 degenerate mode birdcage coils was constructed to facilitate high-sensitivity O-17 and H-1 imaging. In vivo O-17 brain images were acquired in a healthy volunteer using a fermat looped orthogonally encoded trajectories sequence, together with high-resolution structural brain H-1 images. Results: Natural abundance O-17 images with a nominal resolution of 8 mm(3) were acquired in under 20 minutes exhibiting clear delineation of the physiological O-17 distribution. One-millimeter isotropic H-1 structural brain images demonstrated excellent quality and anatomical detail using routine clinical imaging sequence parameters and parallel acceleration. Conclusion: A dual-tuned O-17/H-1 array was constructed to enable high-sensitivity O-17 and H-1 imaging under standard clinical 3 T scanning conditions.