This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In the course of evaluating high frequency volume rf coils for our high field magnet systems, it becomes very apparent that cylindrical bottles of saline are poor models of living animals. This problem is well known but comes increasing significant at even higher fields. This is usually explained by the fact that the permittivity of tissues (i.e. gray/white matter, muscle, etc.) at high frequencies is greatly different than the permittivity of saline. Consequently we have continued work designing phantoms with dielectrics suitable to the tissue and frequency of interest that can be used for better characterization of coils in tests before they are used on animals. Using a gelling agent called TX151 mixed with water a rat head phantom that closely mimics a live rat head has been developed. This work has now been published. Additionally, an array of phantoms of different sizes were constructed in order to investigate the characteristics of the image artifacts observed on large samples. The electrical characteristics of these phantoms was also varied and the data obtained used to compare with simulations.
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