We present numerical simulations and experimental results for susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) at 7 T. Magnitude, phase, and SWI contrast were simulated for different voxel geometries and imaging parameters, resulting in an echo time of 14 msec for optimum contrast between veins and surrounding tissue. Slice thickness of twice the in-plane voxel size or more resulted in optimum vessel visibility. Phantom and in vivo data are in very good agreement with the simulations and the delineation of vessels at 7 T was superior compared to lower field strengths. The phase of the complex data reveals anatomical details that are complementary to the corresponding magnitude images. Susceptibility weighted imaging at very high field strengths is a promising technique because of its high sensitivity to tissue susceptibility, its low specific absorption rate, and the phase's negligible sensitivity to B 1 inhomogeneities. Magn Reson Med 60:1155-1168, 2008.

A method is presented for the combination of phase images from multi‐channel RF coils in the absence of a volume reference coil. It is based on the subtraction of 3D phase offset maps from the phase data from each coil. Phase offset maps are weighted combinations of phase measurements at two echo times. Multi‐Channel Phase Combination using measured 3D phase offsets (MCPC‐3D) offers a conceptually and computationally simple solution to the calculation of combined phase images. The dual‐echo data required for the phase maps can be intrinsic to the high‐resorlution gradient‐echo scan to be reconstructed (MCPC‐3D‐I). Alternatively, a separate, fast, low‐resolution dual‐echo scan can be used (MCPC‐3D‐II). Both variants are shown to give near perfect phase matching, yielding images with high SNR throughout and high GM‐WM contrast. MCPC‐3D is compared with other reference‐free phase image crombination methods; high‐pass phase filtering, phase difference imaging, and matching using constant offsets (MCPC‐C). Multi‐Channel Phase Combination using measured 3D phase offsets method does not need an overlap between the signals from individual coils and can be used with parallel imaging, making it ideally suited to multi‐channel coils with a large number of elements, and to high and ultra‐high field systems. Magn Reson Med, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

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