Abstract
Inspection by the MRI is also thought to be promising as well as the supersonic catheter and so on for the details inspection of the plaque inside the blood vessel wall. MR probe that can detect MR signal in just near the lesion site is necessary to observe it about 2 mm deep with high resolution. In this research, we have developed MR microprobes that have a shielded-loop type coil of which change in Q-value by the load is small. The shielded-loop was made by using strip line. It is flexible because it is made by stacking the thin films on which the wiring is formed. The coil part of this microprobe can be rolled into compact size and can be inserted into a catheter. Its coil expands outside of the catheter and can be used for imaging large area. We designed and made the microprobes and measured their fundamental electrical characteristics. Then, they were tested by using MR scanner and the resolution of MR images were evaluated. The thin microprobe that could be inserted into the 6 Fr (1 Fr = Ø0.33 mm) catheter was made and evaluated. Its Q-value was 22.7, and the resolution of MR image was 160 μm when sample was kiwi fruit.
