7 Tesla 16-channel transceiver loop array for simultaneous head and cervical spinal cord imaging

Simultaneous assessment of the brain and the cervical spinal cord is of great importance in clinical decision making in areas such as head & neck cancer, traumatic injury, multiple sclerosis or stroke. The small diameter of the cervical spinal cord necessitates high spatial resolution, so there is a growing need to provide 7T simultaneous head and cervical spinal cord imaging, to greatly benefit from increased signal-to-noise ratio and contrast at ultrahigh field. In this work, we developed a 7T 16ch transceiver array that is capable for simultaneous and high-resolution brain and cervical spinal cord imaging