Abstract: A patient bed for use in performing procedures on a medical patient, comprising a lower layer with said lower layer permitting attachment to a conventional external base and an upper layer attached in a sliding relationship to said lower layer, said upper layer being angled upwardly relative to said to create a void between said upper layer, or patient support and said lower layer and having a pair of apertures in the patient support, said apertures permitting a patient's breast to fit through the aperture. The invention may also include a breast immobilization device comprising a first sliding compression plate and a second sliding compression plate, said compression plates sliding together to compress the breast of a medical patient by translating toward one another.

Abstract: A radio frequency space cooling system (11) for a magnetic resonance imager system (10) includes a thermal energy transfer device (78). The energy transfer device (78) reduces the temperature of a cooling fluid (86) within the cooling system (11). A cooling element (82) is coupled to the energy transfer device (78) and extends along a patient bore (15) between a radio frequency shield (22) and a radio frequency coil (20) of the magnetic resonance imager system (10). The cooling element (82) has a channel (90) for passage of the cooling fluid (86).

Abstract: An imaging coil (12) includes multiple end rings (52). A center ring (53) extends parallel to and is coupled between the end rings (52). Multiple legs (86) are coupled between the end rings (52) and the center ring (53). The end rings (52) may have a first radius (R1) that is greater than a second radius (R2) of the center ring (53). The imaging coil (12) may include more than 16 legs. The imaging coil (12) may include multiple capacitor groupings (98) coupled along the end rings (52), each capacitor grouping (98) has multiple capacitors (102) with a coverage area width (W) greater than 5.0 cm. The center ring (53) may be coupled to a ground reference (110) and has low impedance such that the center ring (53) is effectively shorted to the ground reference (110).