%0 Conference Paper
%A Dharmakumar, Rohan
%A Koktzoglou, Ioannis
%A Tsaftaris, Sotirios A.
%A Zuehlsdorff, Sven
%A Tang, Richard
%A Graham, Wright
%A Li, Debiao
%B 17th Meeting of the  international society for magnetic resonance in medicine
%C Honolulu, Hawaii
%D 2009
%F eprints:831
%T Visualization and tracking of a conventional guidewire with low flip angle SSFP imaging: an initial study
%U http://eprints.imtlucca.it/831/
%X Inductive coupling between signal reception coils and conventional guidewires in the presence of low flip-angle (LF) balanced SSFP (b-SSFP) imaging may permit the visualization of guidewires with positive contrast. To test our hypothesis, ex-vivo and in-vivo experiments were performed using a radio-opaque coronary guidewire and LF b-SSFP imaging. Our initial studies showed that it is possible to visualize and track a conventional guidewire with positive contrast using LF b-SSFP imaging within ex-vivo and in-vivo settings. These results lend support to the hypothesis that signal reception coils and passive guidewires may be inductively coupled in the presence of LF excitations.