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The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of whole-body imaging at 7T. To achieve this objective, new technology and methods were developed. Radio frequency (RF) field distribution and specific absorption rate (SAR) were first explored through numerical modeling. A body coil was then designed and built. Multichannel transmit and receive coils were also developed and implemented. With this new technology in hand, an imaging survey of the "landscape" of the human body at 7T was conducted. Cardiac imaging at 7T appeared to be possible. The potential for breast imaging and spectroscopy was demonstrated. Preliminary results of the first human body imaging at 7T suggest both promise and directions for further development. Magn Reson Med 61:244 -248, 2009.

This work reports the preliminary results of the first human images at the new high-field benchmark of 9.4T. A 65-cmdiameter bore magnet was used together with an asymmetric 40-cm-diameter head gradient and shim set. A multichannel transmission line (transverse electromagnetic (TEM)) head coil was driven by a programmable parallel transceiver to control the relative phase and magnitude of each channel independently. These new RF field control methods facilitated compensation for RF artifacts attributed to destructive interference patterns, in order to achieve homogeneous 9.4T head images or localize anatomic targets. Prior to FDA investigational device exemptions (IDEs) and internal review board (IRB)-approved human studies, preliminary RF safety studies were performed on porcine models. These data are reported together with exit interview results from the first 44 human volunteers. Although several points for improvement are discussed, the preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility of safe and successful human imaging at 9. The impetus for this work originated with the first 9.4T primate images obtained from a large male cynomolgus macaque at the University of Minnesota's Center for Magnetic Resonance Research in 1995 (1). In that early study, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at 9.4T more than doubled the SNR reported at the time for 4T human results (2-5). The RF uniformity and specific absorption rate (SAR) for the monkey study were high and low, respectively. These data also validated the technology and methodology developed to achieve successful 9.4T results in larger laboratory animals. Based on these preliminary results and the need to double the SNR and spectral resolution in laboratory primate studies from the commonly used 4.7T field strength, an initial "seed" grant was awarded in 1997 for what would eventually become the 9.4T system of this report (6). Significant support from the Keck Foundation, the University of Minnesota, and other sources made the present 9.4T system and facility possible.As reported, the macaque head examined in Ref. 1 had only one-seventh the volume of an adult human head. While the SNR and spectral resolution from that study should predict human results, the uniform RF field contours in the monkey head at 9.4T would not predict the B 1 field in the human head of significantly greater electrical dimension. Prior to the present study, predictions of human images at 400 MHz Larmor frequencies were extrapolated upward from 7T data (7), downward from 11.1T images of fixed brains ex vivo (8), or directly from headcoil bench studies (9) and numerical models at 400 MHz, as presented in this article. Data from all four sources predicted severe RF artifacts for images achieved by the conventional means of placing a human head inside a homogeneous, circularly polarized volume coil that is resonant at 400 MHz. These high-frequency RF artifacts were first reported as a "dielectric resonance" (2). Since those first observations were made, high-field-dependent head imaging artifacts hav...