Quality Assurance RF Coils
Quality Assurance of RF coils is typically based on a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) measurement using a standardized measurement setup, phantom (sample), and measurement protocol. Setup, phantom and protocol may be different for every type of coil and therefore they are defined in the corresponding Coil Specific Information (see accordingly).
Therein, also the QA SNR specification of the RF coil is given. Some coils automatically provide the QA SNR specification if set in the HWIDS data of the coil.
The QA SNR specification serves as a reference value for quality assurance. In addition, other parameters may be defined. Normal operation of a RF coil with regard to SNR is defined as when the actual measurement is better than or equal to the QA SNR specification. Repeating measurements and recording them over time will enable the operator to establish a site specific value for reproducibility and performance.
Quality Assurance of most Bruker RF Coils is based on the protocol QA SNR located in the Scan Programs & Protocols tree “AnyObjects”, “AnyRegions”, “QualityAssurance”.
This protocol measures and determines automatically the SNR value based on a contour finding algorithm for signal and noise regions. Finally, it normalizes the SNR to a volume of one mm3 (SNR / mm3) which is compared with the QA SNR specification. The results are provided on the Routine Card.
In addition, a QA Test Report (filename QaSnrReport.pdf) is automatically created and saved in the corresponding Dataset in the Procno directory.
Please note that the automatically determined QA SNR value is used to check the normal operation of a coil.
The specification is based on the reproducibility of measurements for a specific coil and setup. It cannot be used to compare SNR values of different types of coils.
