Twisted-pair RF coil suitable for locating the track of a catheter.

An RF coil, made by twisting a conventional wire loop, was tuned to form an extended sensor to provide an effective method of showing the track of a catheter. A twisted-pair coil can be made small enough in diameter to pass through needles in common clinical use. The coil has a very small field of view and in transmit/receive operation has minimal effect on the magnetization of the surrounding tissue.

An evaluation of the effects of susceptibility changes on the water chemical shift method of temperature measurement in human peripheral muscle.

Divergencies between chemical shift measurements of temperature and directly measured values using optical sensors have been studied in vivo in human peripheral muscle with the assistance of a variety of experimental and theoretical techniques. These include the modelling of both thermal and susceptibility changes using two- and three-dimensional finite element methods, as well as the use of multi-wavelength near-infrared observations. The conclusion of these studies is that a simple temperature calibration is not accessible, with results affected by the complex response of the tissue itself.