BME PhD Preliminary Exam Announcement for Thejas Vishnu Ramesh (J. Rispoli and V. Rayz, advisors) Everyone is invited to attend the public presentation beginning at 2:00 PM. Research title: Conductive fabric based wearable coil for cervical spine and carotid arteries MRI at 3T Date: April 29th, 2024 Time: 2:00 PM Location: MJIS 2001 Thesis committee members: Dr. Joseph Rispoli (co-chair), Dr. Vitaliy Rayz (co-chair), Dr. Craig Goergen (committee member) and Dr. Uzay Emir (committee member). Abstract: MRI is a non-ionizing, non-invasive imaging modality that provides superior soft tissue contrast. Radiofrequency (RF) coils are the antennas through which images are obtained in MRI. Volume coils provide a homogeneous field around the region of interest (ROI) while surface coils help obtain the maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for high resolution images. Receive arrays are made of multiple surface coils for concomitant acquisition of spatial information from the anatomy, thus enabling parallel imaging. MR angiography (MRA) techniques such as time-of-flight (TOF) MRI and phase contrast (PC) angiography take advantage of parallel imaging to visualize the vasculature and understand the underlying hemodynamics that can lead to cardiovascular diseases, especially in the carotid arteries. A rigid whole neck array that contains coils that extend to the cervical spine are often used to image the carotid arteries. However, the rigid neck array lacks adaptability to varying neck sizes, thus limiting the SNR. Wearable coils that tightly conform around the anatomy of interest developed using techniques such as screen printing, conductive elastomer, and conductive thread reduce coil setup time while ensuring maximum SNR in the final image. However, current wearable coil fabrication methods require specialized manufacturing practices, which render coil development an expensive process. Therefore, a wearable array developed using commercially available conductive fabric is proposed for simultaneous bilateral carotid arteries and cervical spine imaging at 3T. The conductive fabric method eliminates specialized manufacturing needs for developing wearable coils, thus enhancing RF coil accessibility without compromising patient comfort and image quality.