A dual-tuned 17 O/1 H head array for direct brain oximetry at 3 Tesla.

PURPOSE: To design and build a dual-tuned 17 O/1 H coil for direct brain oximetry at 3T. METHODS: A dual-tuned 17 O/1 H coil comprising 2 degenerate mode birdcage coils was constructed to facilitate high-sensitivity 17 O and 1 H imaging. In vivo 17 O brain images were acquired in a healthy volunteer using a fermat looped orthogonally encoded trajectories sequence, together with high-resolution structural brain 1 H images. RESULTS: Natural abundance 17 O images with a nominal resolution of 8 mm3 were acquired in under 20 minutes exhibiting clear delineation of the physiological 17 O distribution. One-millimeter isotropic 1 H structural brain images demonstrated excellent quality and anatomical detail using routine clinical imaging sequence parameters and parallel acceleration. CONCLUSION: A dual-tuned 17 O/1 H array was constructed to enable high-sensitivity 17 O and 1 H imaging under standard clinical 3 T scanning conditions.