Rapid and quantitative chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging with magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF)
Ouri Cohen
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Ouri Cohen and Shuning Huang contributed equally to this work
Search for more papers by this authorShuning Huang
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Ouri Cohen and Shuning Huang contributed equally to this work
Search for more papers by this authorMichael T. McMahon
F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Search for more papers by this authorMatthew S. Rosen
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Christian T. Farrar
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Correspondence Christian T. Farrar, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th Street, Suite 2301, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorOuri Cohen
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Ouri Cohen and Shuning Huang contributed equally to this work
Search for more papers by this authorShuning Huang
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Ouri Cohen and Shuning Huang contributed equally to this work
Search for more papers by this authorMichael T. McMahon
F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland
Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland
Search for more papers by this authorMatthew S. Rosen
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Christian T. Farrar
Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts
Correspondence Christian T. Farrar, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th Street, Suite 2301, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorFunding information: National Institutes of Health, Grant/Award Number: R01CA203873, P41RR14075, P41EB024495
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a fast magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) method for quantitative chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging.
Methods
We implemented a CEST-MRF method to quantify the chemical exchange rate and volume fraction of the Nα-amine protons of L-arginine (L-Arg) phantoms and the amide and semi-solid exchangeable protons of in vivo rat brain tissue. L-Arg phantoms were made with different concentrations (25–100 mM) and pH (pH 4–6). The MRF acquisition schedule varied the saturation power randomly for 30 iterations (phantom: 0–6 μT; in vivo: 0–4 μT) with a total acquisition time of ≤2 min. The signal trajectories were pattern-matched to a large dictionary of signal trajectories simulated using the Bloch-McConnell equations for different combinations of exchange rate, exchangeable proton volume fraction, and water T1 and T2 relaxation times.
Results
The chemical exchange rates of the Nα-amine protons of L-Arg were significantly (P < 0.0001) correlated with the rates measured with the quantitation of exchange using saturation power method. Similarly, the L-Arg concentrations determined using MRF were significantly (P < 0.0001) correlated with the known concentrations. The pH dependence of the exchange rate was well fit (R2 = 0.9186) by a base catalyzed exchange model. The amide proton exchange rate measured in rat brain cortex (34.8 ± 11.7 Hz) was in good agreement with that measured previously with the water exchange spectroscopy method (28.6 ± 7.4 Hz). The semi-solid proton volume fraction was elevated in white (12.2 ± 1.7%) compared to gray (8.1 ± 1.1%) matter brain regions in agreement with previous magnetization transfer studies.
Conclusion
CEST-MRF provides a method for fast, quantitative CEST imaging.
Supporting Information
Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article.
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| mrm27221-sup-0001-suppinfo01.docx18.5 MB |
FIGURE S1 Error (%) induced in the amide proton exchange rate (ksw), amide proton volume fraction (fs), semi-solid proton exchange rate (kssw) and semi-solid proton volume fraction (fss) because of B0 field shifts ranging from +0.15 to −0.15 ppm (±30 Hz) TABLE S1 Dictionary parameter ranges (min:increment:max) used for matching the Monte Carlo simulated signal trajectories. Dictionaries used either a variable amide proton chemical exchange rate (ksw) or a variable semi-solid proton volume fraction (fss). A total of 12 different dictionaries were generated in each case with all possible combinations of variable and fixed water T1 (T1w), water T2 (T2w), semi-solid T2 (T2ss) and B1 scaling factor parameters. The solute amide proton T1 (T1s), T2 (T2s) and volume fraction (fs) and the semi-solid exchange rate (kssw) were fixed for all dictionaries with T1s = 1450 ms, T2s = 1 ms, fs = 0.55%, and kssw = 50 Hz TABLE S2 Error induced in the matched amide proton chemical exchange rate (ksw) and volume fraction (fs) and the semi-solid proton exchange rate (kssw) and volume fraction (fss) for different B0 field shifts TABLE S3 Semi-solid, macromolecular proton volume fractions (fss) of gray (GM) and white matter (WM) brain tissue reported in the literature |
Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
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