Systems and methods for the selection of and application of RF power to a
plurality of transmit and/or transmit/receive coil elements to decrease
patient SAR and to limit the potential for artifact problems. Without any
change to the hardware or software of an MR scanner, the present local
coil system provides system logic and coil design flexibility such that
only transmit coil elements that are required for a particular portion of
an MR scan will be utilized at that time. The local coil system may
include any combination of transmit-only, receive-only and
transmit/receive coil elements as part of the coil system (array of coil
elements). The logic controller of the local coil system gathers input
data from the MR scanner, from the attached coil elements and optionally
from one or more sensors attached to the coil system itself.