Comparison of a Wide Magnet with a Conventional Magnet at 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging Based on Signal Intensity Uniformity with Large Field of View: A Phantom Study

Abstract

Signal uniformity a criterion for providing objective information for evaluating the performance of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and is an important measurement standard for evaluating the homogeneity of MRI system. In the early, magnet bore was very narrow in diameter. In general, magnetic bore was used with a small size that only allowed a brain imaging. Because, magnet bore size and homogeneity are inversely proportional. Recently, cylindrical-bore MR imagers with wider bores have been developed to provide higher field strengths. We compared the uniformity of large field of view (FOV) and image quality of large phantom imaging between spin echo (SE) and gradient echo (GRE) using 60-cm conventional-bore and 70-cm wide-bore 3.0 tesla (T) MR scanners. In the results, the SE and the GRE images demonstrated almost identical signal intensity patterns. The wide bore offers similar to uniformity in the large FOV compare with conventional bore. Wide-bore MRI using a large FOV can provide comparable image quality and geometric accuracy to conventional-bore MRI