Magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS)

Magnetic resonance (MR)-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) is a non-invasive therapeutic modality for neurodegenerative diseases that allows real-time imaging of targeted regions. However, MR image quality is poor and severely limits the technology due to the use of the body coil for focal targeting. Acoustic simulations demonstrated the acoustic transparency (signal loss <1%) of an ultra-flexible, ultra-thin, acoustically transparent, eight-channel receive coil that conforms to the shape of the head when used for thalamic sonication. In vivo results showed increase of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) over the body coil by a factor of 7.3 and 7.6 in a brain image with and without the presence of the transducer, respectively.