Microwave seminar | 21 February 2022

In this seminar Prof. Quick will provide a short introduction of the Erwin L. Hahn Institute for Magnetic Resonance (ELH) that was founded by the University of Duisburg-Essen and Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen and is located on the grounds of UNESCO World Heritage “Zeche Zollverein”, a former coal mine and coking plant in Essen, Germany. Founded in the year 2005, the institute since 2006 hosted one of the worlds first 7-Tesla (7T) MRI systems for human applications. The ELH today is home to ten interdisciplinary PI research groups that all use ultrahigh-field MRI to advance research in the human Brain and Body. Among the ELH PI groups, Quick’s PI group has a focus on methods and hardware development and radiofrequency (RF) coil development. The overaarching aim of these new RF hardware developments is to broaden the diagnostic application spectrum of human 7-Tesla Brain & Body MRI. Multiple examples for different RF coils designed and build at the ELH will be shown and demonstrated in various clinical applications at 7T MRI. In the year 2020, and after 14 years of successful operation, the old 7T MRI system at the ELH has been exchanged for a new Siemens MAGNETOM Terra 7T MRI system. The new 7T system now features a CE and FDA labeled use for 7T brain and knee imaging and long awaited new software and MR sequences. Still, local transmit/receive RF coils for body imaging applications are not commercially available for any human 7T MRI system. Thus, the PI groups with a focus on hardware development and body imaging applications at the ELH now work on reconnecting own multi-channel body RF coils to the new Terra MRI system and to develop new RF arrays for various 7T Brain & Body MR imaging applications.

Main paper/arXiv, related to the seminar, and other references

1. Kraff O, Quick HH. 7T: Physics, safety, and potential clinical applications. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2017 Dec;46(6):1573-1589.
2. Kraff O, Quick HH. Radiofrequency Coils for 7 Tesla MRI. Top Magn Reson Imaging. 2019 Jun;28(3):145-158.
3. Orzada S, Solbach K, Gratz M, Brunheim S, Fiedler TM, Johst S, Bitz AK, Shooshtary S, Abuelhaija A, Voelker MN, Rietsch SHG, Kraff O, Maderwald S, Flöser M, Oehmigen M, Quick HH, Ladd ME. A 32-channel parallel transmit system add-on for 7T MRI. PLoS One. 2019 Sep 12;14(9):e0222452.
4. Rietsch SHG, Orzada S, Maderwald S, Brunheim S, Philips BWJ, Scheenen TWJ, Ladd ME, Quick HH. 7T ultra-high field body MR imaging with an 8-channel transmit/32-channel receive radio-frequency coil array. Med Phys. 2018 Jul;45(7):2978-2990.
5. Rietsch SHG, Orzada S, Bitz AK, Gratz M, Ladd ME, Quick HH. Parallel transmit capability of various RF transmit elements and arrays at 7T MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2018 Feb;79(2):1116-1126.