Parallel transmission experiments require knowledge of the B1+ distributions of individual coil transmit elements in order to tailor the RF excitation as desired. In addition to B1+ distributions, B0 maps and, if needed, power correlation matrices must be measured / calibrated before designing parallel transmission RF pulses. Even after scanner-related-measurements are acquired, RF pulse design requires inputs such as the desired excitation profile, the choice of RF pulse design method, the excitation k-space trajectory and so on. Since parallel transmit systems are still in the development stage, the workflow of obtaining the abovementioned inputs and designing parallel transmission RF pulses is not yet supported with intuitive graphical user interfaces (GUIs) of the sort used in clinical MRI scans. The lack of application specific GUIs for parallel transmit systems results in inefficiencies in the MRI scan workflow, e.g. longer experiments and operator errors. In order to increase the efficiency and accuracy of parallel transmit experiments, we developed and used custom-designed GUIs in the Matlab programming environment.
The GUIs provided here can be used not only for parallel transmit experiments but also for transmit coil design (e.g. using electromagnetic simulation results as inputs to test the suitability of prospective coil designs) and for educational purposes (e.g. for practice in RF pulse design).
- RF Shimming GUI
- 2D Excitation Pulse Design GUI