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US 2009/0021255 A1Published application
Apparatus and method for cryogenically cooling a coil on a magnetic resonance imaging system
Assigneem2m Imaging Corp.
InventorsJon T. DeVries, Erzhen Gao, Wallace Kunimoto
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Abstract
A magnetic resonance imaging system (10) includes a primary magnet and a secondary magnet operable to produce magnetic fields within a sample being imaged. The MRI system further includes at least one RF coil (50) that is operable to receive electromagnetic frequencies from the sample. The RF coil is formed from tubing (221) that serves as a cooling conduit through which flows a cooling fluid provided by a cooling source. The cooling fluid cools the RF coils to improve imaging of the sample.
Claims41
An apparatus comprising:
- a first magnetic resonance radio frequency coil operable to receive magnetic resonance signals from an object under examination, wherein the first coil is formed from tubing which defines a path for the flow of a cryogen;
- a second magnetic resonance radio frequency coil operable to receive magnetic resonance signals from the object under examination, wherein the second coils is formed from tubing which defines a path for the flow of the cryogen;
- wherein the tubing of the first and second coils is connected fluidly in series.
An apparatus comprising:
- a first magnetic resonance radio frequency coil which defines a first path for the flow of a cryogen;
- a second magnetic resonance radio frequency receive coil which defines a second path for the flow of the cryogen;
- wherein the first coil is electrically insulated from the second coil and wherein the first and second paths are fluidly connected in series.
A magnetic resonance apparatus comprising:
- a magnet which generates a main magnetic field in an examination region;
- an RF coil which excites magnetic resonance in magnetically active nuclei disposed in the examination region;
- a cryogen source;
- an RF receive coil including:
- a first receive coil element which generates a first electrical signal in response to magnetic resonance signals generated by the magnetically active nuclei, wherein the first receive coil includes a first cryogen passage;
- a second receive coil element which generates a second electrical signal in response thereto to magnetic resonance signals generated by the magnetically active nuclei, wherein the second receive coil includes a second cryogen passage;
- wherein the first cryogen passage, the second cryogen passage, and the cryogen source are connected fluidly in series.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.