A Geostatistical Approach to Denoise and Interpolate Experimental Complex-Valued B1 Maps

INTRODUCTION The knowledge of the complex-valued + 1 B map generated by each channel of a phased-array RF coil has become essential for high field MRI systems operating above 7 T, a cornerstone for static or dynamic shimming techniques, whose aim is to provide a uniform excitation over any region of interest (ROI). The maps must be measured experimentally for each RF coil and each subject under examination using a specific MRI sequence, so-called AFI [1]; the more accurate and space resolved the maps, the higher the shimming quality. Unfortunately, high quality maps are time consuming and usually lead to a stronger SAR exposure for the subject. We propose in this abstract a new method based on geostatistical considerations to post-process noisy and poor space resolved + 1 B maps. A proof of principle experiment is reported for a homogeneous spherical phantom at 7 T.