Workshop on Radiofrequency coils for Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Nowadays the technology of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is rapidly developing thanks to great advances in powerful superconductive magnets and efficient transceivers. However, these two development trends face serious limitations, especially in clinical applications, due to increasing power deposition, higher biological influence of static fields, higher risks as well as dramatic raise of costs. In this situation a very attractive, but still not very elaborated solution is development of novel radiofrequency (RF) coils, which are usually UHF near-field antennas working under conditions of a shielded bore of MRI scanners in the vicinity of a subject (e.g. a human body). Novel RF coils providing better control over near fields, as compared to conventional loop coils, would noticeably increase SNR, resolution and quality of images. On this step a fruitful collaboration between antenna engineers and specialists on MRI is required. Namely, recent advances and application experience on antennas could be involved in RF coils to further improve MRI technology.