Basic Principles of and Practical Guide to Clinical MRI Radiofrequency Coils

Radiofrequency (RF) coils are an essential MRI component used for transmission of the RF field to excite nuclear spins and for reception of the MRI signal. They play an important role in image quality in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, signal uniformity, and image resolution. However, they are also associated with potential image artifacts and RF heating that may lead to patient burns. Knowledge of the basic principles of RF coils—including coil designs commonly used in clinical MRI and the anatomy of RF receive coils—facilitates understanding of the use and safety issues of RF coils. Selection of suitable RF coils for individual applications and proper use of RF coils in particular MRI techniques such as parallel imaging are needed to achieve optimal image quality, prevent image artifacts, and reduce the risk of RF burns. The ability to correctly identify RF coil problems and distinguish them from other problems with image artifacts resembling those of RF coil problems allows effective handling of the problems and efficient clinical MRI operation. Quality control of RF coils is required to ensure consistent image quality for clinical MRI and avoid coil problems that may affect image diagnostic evaluation or interrupt patient imaging. There are different phantom test methods for RF coil quality control; the appropriate one to use depends on the coil design and MRI system. An invited commentary by Ohliger is available online. Online supplemental material is available for this article. ©RSNA, 2022