Wearable and Elastic Surface Coil for 1H Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Wearable and elastic surface coil using a conductive and stretchable textile for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of breast was designed. A high-conductive silver thread was woven with elastofiber to create two elastic textile coils. Three phantoms with varying sizes and a resolution plate were also designed to validate the coil performance. Signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) were calculated for the phantoms with different planar cuts. Resolution plate hole diameter of 6 mm was clearly discernible on axial MR images. Despite its canonical circular geometry, the wearable and elastic textile coil with one channel only was successful. The elastic coil can improve clinical applications of MRI with larger filling factor and may provide better patient comfort.