7-Tesla-Ultrahochfeld Magnetresonanztomographie im Kopfund Halsbereich mittels 64-Kanal-Signaldetektion und integrierter paralleler 16-Kanal-Sendespule

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has proven to be a valuable diagnostic tool in everyday clinical practice and has constantly evolved since its introduction. For example, the first MRI was recently cleared for clinical use by the United States Food and Drug Administration. With a higher magnetic field strength, the physical effects and parameters change, which can have a positive (contrast enhancing effect) but also a negative (artifact enhancing) effect on the imaging process. For example, for technical reasons, it is not currently possible to generate a whole-body image at a field strength of 7T, as is possible at 1,5T, for example. Current imaging at 7T MRIs is mainly limited to local areas such as the brain, foot, arm, or knee joint. Based on the great demand from the clinical field to extend the Bildfeld /engl.: Field of View (FOV), the research question of this dissertation arises: With the current state of the art, considering the maximum available transmit and receive channels offered by a current commercial 7T-MRI, is it possible to generate a FOV covering the head and neck region? This problem was solved by the development of morphologically adapted signal generators as well as signal detectors. The FOV was extended from the brain region to the neck region at 7T. The developed hardware was designed, simulated, constructed, tested, and compared with a commercially available 7T Brain Coil. An advance on the current state of the art was quantified. The newly developed methods for designing and constructing the transmit and receive structure at 7T, as well as the hardware used to test its functionality, have been directly used and published in modified form in similar MRI research projects at a field strength of 3T. In summary, this project has laid the foundation for both clinical imaging and further research in the combined head and neck region for 7T-MRI. The impact of this project is expected to be seen in clinical trials over the next few years. Limiting factors such as SAR can be optimized by software measures and the control of the coils in further PhD work to optimize the imaging process.