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Quantitative pulsed CEST-MRI at a clinical 3T MRI system

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Abstract

Objectives

The goal of this study was to quantify CEST related parameters such as chemical exchange rate and fractional concentration of exchanging protons at a clinical 3T scanner. For this purpose, two CEST quantification approaches—the AREX metric (for ‘apparent exchange dependent relaxation’), and the AREX-based Ω-plot method were used. In addition, two different pulsed RF irradiation schemes, using Gaussian-shaped and spin-lock pulses, were compared.

Materials and methods

Numerical simulations as well as MRI measurements in phantoms were performed. For simulations, the Bloch–McConnell equations were solved using a two-pool exchange model. MR experiments were performed on a clinical 3T MRI scanner using a cylindrical phantom filled with creatine solution at different pH values and different concentrations.

Results

The validity of the Ω-plot method and the AREX approach using spin-lock preparation for determination of the quantitative CEST parameters was demonstrated. Especially promising results were achieved for the Ω-plot method when the spin-lock preparation was employed.

Conclusion

Pulsed CEST at 3T could be used to quantify parameters such as exchange rate constants and concentrations of protons exchanging with free water. In the future this technique might be used to estimate the exchange rates and concentrations of biochemical substances in human tissues in vivo.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Zaiss (German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany) for providing CEST MRI pulse sequence used in this study.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Julia Stabinska and Tom Cronenberg contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Medical Faculty, University Dusseldorf, Moorenstr. 5, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Julia Stabinska, Tom Cronenberg, Hans-Jörg Wittsack, Rotem Shlomo Lanzman & Anja Müller-Lutz

Authors
  1. Julia Stabinska
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  2. Tom Cronenberg
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  3. Hans-Jörg Wittsack
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  4. Rotem Shlomo Lanzman
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  5. Anja Müller-Lutz
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Contributions

Stabinska: Protocol/project development, data management, data analysis. Cronenberg: Protocol/project development, data collection, data analysis. Wittsack: Protocol/project development. Lanzman: Protocol/project development. Müller-Lutz: Protocol/project development.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julia Stabinska.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Funding

This study was supported by a Grant from the Forschungskommission of the Faculty of Medicine, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf (Grant No: 13/2015).

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

See Figs. 6 and 7 and Table 2.

Fig. 6
figure 6

A simplified schematic CEST pulse sequence diagram with a series of a Gaussian-shaped RF saturation pulses and b off-resonant spin-lock saturation pulses. Each saturation block consists of n pulses of average amplitude B 1 and duration t p interleaved by delays t d . Between the saturation pulses spoiling gradients in all three gradient dimensions are applied. After RF saturation a 2-D single-shot gradient echo sequence (GRE) was used for CEST image data acquisition. Diagram was created based on [22, 28]

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Fig. 7
figure 7

Z-spectrum and AREX curves obtained with B 1 = 0.5 µT and B 1 = 1.65 µT using pulsed SL (dashed blue lines) and Gaussian-shaped saturation pulses (solid green lines). For the pulsed SL saturation, AREX yields higher contrast at higher B 1 compared to saturation with trains of Gaussian-shaped RF pulses

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Table 2 Numerical simulation parameters
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Stabinska, J., Cronenberg, T., Wittsack, HJ. et al. Quantitative pulsed CEST-MRI at a clinical 3T MRI system. Magn Reson Mater Phy 30, 505–516 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-017-0625-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-017-0625-0

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