Development and Characterization of a Transmitter/Receiver Volume Birdcage Coil for Knee MRI at 7T

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is widely used for diagnosis of musculoskeletal disorders. In the last decade, MRI scanners have shown a trend towards ultra-high field (i.e., > 7 Teslas) scanners due to higher SNR and contrast-to-noise ratio. However, UHF MRI scanners are available mainly for research, especially for brain MRI. In addition, the availability of specific radiofrequency (RF) coil geometries for different applications than brain MRI is limited and of very high cost. This work describes the design, development and characterization of a volume birdcage coil for MRI of the knee at ultra-high-field MRI scanner. The results have shown that this coil provides good homogeneity and contrast-to-noise ratio even though it is linearly driven.