Acquisition of human multislice MR images at 8 Tesla

Purpose: The purpose of this work was to acquire high quality multislice MR images from the human brain at 8 Tesla (T). Method: Initial images were acquired with an 8 T/80 cm magnet designed and manufactured by Magnex Scientific (Abingdon, England). Images were acquired using volume RF coils operating at 340 MHz. A torque-free head gradient insert was utilized to spatially encode the spins. Images were acquired from the human head using gradient-recalled echo pulse sequences. Results: Ultra high frequency (UHF) MR images have been obtained from the human head that display both excellent signal/noise ratio and image quality. The power required to obtain the 8 T images was much less than expected based on the trend obtained at lower fields. Conclusion: In this work, we have demonstrated that it is possible to obtain high quality multislice images from the human brain at 8 T. These images display the phenomenal potential for imaging at UHF and reveal that none of the stumbling blocks advanced by the MR community for an 8 T project (RF penetration, dielectric effects, specific absorption rate problems, RF power requirements) proved to be a limitation.