Abstract: An magnetic resonance imaging system having a housing comprising a transmit and/or receive inductor system having a coil about the housing axis in proximity with the housing. The transmit and/or receive coil includes a series of electrical transmission line elements distributed with respect to the axis about the subject. Each transmission line element includes an outer conductor and an inner conductor spaced radially from the outer conductor relative to the axis. Capacitive elements are dispersed among the inner conductor and outer conductor. The coil includes capacitive elements connecting pairs of conductors. The capacitive elements may connect pairs of outer conductors or pairs of inner conductors.

Abstract: A method of inducing spin excitation by employing RF transmission fields of time-varying spatial characteristics in order to better control the overall distribution of spin excitation. The MRI transmit inductor system generates an RF transmission of particular spatial characteristics, followed by one or more additional RF transmissions with different spatial characteristics, where the additional RF transmissions alter the spin excitation produced by the first RF transmission. The spin excitation can be provided by a sequence of two or more discrete RF transmissions with different spatial characteristics, by a single RF transmission that has continuously varying spatial characteristics, by using successive RF transmissions of the primary and higher order modes of a volume coil, and/or by an RF transmission from a volume or surface coil followed by a second RF transmission from one or more local surface coils.

Abstract: A magnetic resonance imaging system comprises: a housing providing a medical diagnostic chamber for a subject therewithin lying along an axis. The housing contains: a transmit/receive inductor system having a coil about the axis in proximity with the housing, a gradient inductor system having a coil operatively associated with the transmit/receive inductor system, and a field inductor system having a coil operatively associated with the transmit/receive inductor system. The field coil establishes a supervening field about the entire system. The gradient coil initiates perturbations in the fields and produces signals derived responsively from the perturbations. The transmit/receive coil includes a series of electrical transmission line elements paraxially distributed with respect to the axis about the subject. Each transmission line element includes an outer conductor and an inner conductor spaced radially from the outer conductor relative to the axis.