Design of a quadrature coil for MRI of carbon in human liver at 7T

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a method of generating images of soft tissues inside a human body by means of magnetic fields. The method is widely used for medical diagnosis as well as healthcare research. A crucial component of an MRI system is the radio frequency (RF) coil, which should efficiently generate and detect alternating magnetic fields. While typically hydrogen nucleus is used for imaging purposes, imaging other nuclei can vastly extend the capability of MRI. In this work, the design of a coil for carbon-13 high field MRI is presented. The coil is specifically designed for human liver imaging and provides 2 to 3 times better SNR which will result in higher image resolution, or 4 to 9 times faster scan time.