84 Icon System Manual T02985_02_01I
6 Quality Assurance
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.
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.
For QA SNR measurments, use the phantom and setup as described in the Coil Specific
Information and tune/match the coils accordingly.
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