Antenna design improves small-sample MRI

CARDIOVASCULAR disease is a leading cause of death in the US. A dominant disease mechanism is the buildup of atherosclerotic plaque in the carotid artery at the junction in the neck where the artery branches into two segments. Currently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is being used experimentally to study plaque samples that have been surgically removed from the carotid artery.(1) However, conventional whole body imaging systems suffer from low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which results in poor image quality when applied to physically small samples such as plaque. A custom transmit/receive antenna coil (or excitation coil) increases the SNR and improves image quality for small samples.