Abstract
The emergence of parallel MRI techniques and new applications for real‐time interactive MRI underscores the need to evaluate performance gained by increasing the capability of MRI phased‐array systems beyond the standard four to eight high‐bandwidth channels. Therefore, to explore the advantages of highly parallel MRI a 32‐channel 1.5 T MRI system and 32‐element torso phased arrays were designed and constructed for real‐time interactive MRI. The system was assembled from multiple synchronized scanner‐receiver subsystems. Software was developed to coordinate across subsystems the real‐time acquisition, reconstruction, and display of 32‐channel images. Real‐time, large field‐of‐view (FOV) body‐survey imaging was performed using interleaved echo‐planar and single‐shot fast‐spin‐echo pulse sequences. A new method is demonstrated for augmenting parallel image acquisition by independently offsetting the frequency of different array elements (FASSET) to variably shift their FOV. When combined with conventional parallel imaging techniques, image acceleration factors of up to 4 were investigated. The use of a large number of coils allowed the FOV to be doubled in two dimensions during rapid imaging, with no degradation of imaging time or spatial resolution. The system provides a platform for evaluating the applications of many‐channel real‐time MRI, and for understanding the factors that optimize the choice of array size. Magn Reson Med 52:878–884, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.