MR-guided interventional procedures can be performed with full patient access with use of an open-configuration, superconducting MR magnet with near real-time imaging and interactive image plane control.

A volume MR phased array was constructed with two coils placed anteriorly and two coils posteriorly. Data acquired simultaneously from the four coils on a phantom were combined into a single image having a signal-to-noise ratio 80% better than that from the body coil. Additional comparisons of the four-coil phased array with a two-coil phased array and a Helmholtz pair having the same overall dimensions show how variations of signal amplitude and phase in the individual coils affect the composite SNR. Images of the male and female pelvis demonstrate how the improved SNR can be used to reduce the number of excitations, decrease the field of view, increase the echo time, or reduce the slice thickness.

Cardiac-gated phosphorus (31P) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic imaging with surface coils resolves in three dimensions the spatial distribution of high energy phosphate metabolites in the human heart noninvasively. 31P spectra derive from 6- to 14-cm3 volumes of myocardium in the anterior left ventricle, septum, and apex, at depths of up to about 8 cm from the chest, as identified by proton (1H) NMR anatomical images acquired without moving the subject. Spectroscopic images are acquired in 9 to 21 min at 1.5 T. Metabolite concentrations are quantified with reference to a standard located outside the chest, yielding normal in vivo concentrations of phosphocreatine and adenosine triphosphate of about 11.0 +/- 2.7 (SD) and 6.9 +/- 1.6 mumol/g of wet heart tissue, respectively. High energy phosphate contents did not vary significantly with location in the normal myocardium, but 2,3-diphosphoglycerate signals from blood varied with subject and location.

Multiple images acquired simultaneously from an array of surface coils can be combined to give a composite image with an improved signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and a large field of view. The composite images' SNR can be optimized by taking advantage of noise correlations between coils and phase shifts induced by surface coil reception. Methods are derived for making optimal composite images with uniform noise or with uniform sensitivity. A simplified model is used to provide an intuitive understanding of the interaction of noise correlation and phase shift phenomena.

A four-coil phased-array 31P NMR receiver was designed and tested for human cardiac applications, to determine whether the combination of relatively high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and large field of view produced in 1H imaging is also realized for in vivo 31P spectroscopy. Spectra were acquired in parallel from an array of four overlapping 6.5-cm surface coils using one- and two-dimensional phase-encoding pulse sequences and were optimally combined to yield composite spectroscopic images. The phased array was found to generate useful 31P spectra from a 2.5-fold wider lateral region around the anterior myocardium than a single receiver of the same size as the array elements, with no increase in imaging time. In addition, the sensitive depth was increased by up to 2 cm over that of a single coil. Spectra could be acquired in roughly 15 min from a region extending to the middle of the heart, with voxel sizes of 2 x 2 x 4 cm3. For the average heart voxel, the SNR of the combined spectrum was higher than that of the best spectrum from any one coil in the array by 30%, with some voxels showing an increase as high as 60%.