MR imaging of a novel NOE-mediated magnetization transfer with water in rat brain at 9.4 T

Magnetization Transfer Contrast and Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer MRI. Features and analysis of the field-dependent saturation spectrum

Magnetization Transfer Contrast (MTC) and Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) experiments measure the transfer of magnetization from molecular protons to the solvent water protons, an effect that becomes apparent as an MRI signal loss ("saturation"). This allows molecular information to be accessed with the enhanced sensitivity of MRI. In analogy to Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS), these saturation data are presented as a function of the chemical shift of participating proton groups, e.g. OH, NH, NH₂, which is called a Z-spectrum. In tissue, these Z-spectra contain the convolution of multiple saturation transfer effects, including nuclear Overhauser enhancements (NOEs) and chemical exchange contributions from protons in semi-solid and mobile macromolecules or tissue metabolites. As a consequence, their appearance depends on the magnetic field strength (B₀) and pulse sequence parameters such as B₁ strength, pulse shape and length, and interpulse delay, which presents a major problem for quantification and reproducibility of MTC and CEST effects. The use of higher B₀ can bring several advantages. In addition to higher detection sensitivity (signal-to-noise ratio, SNR), both MTC and CEST studies benefit from longer water T₁ allowing the saturation transferred to water to be retained longer. While MTC studies are non-specific at any field strength, CEST specificity is expected to increase at higher field because of a larger chemical shift dispersion of the resonances of interest (similar to MRS). In addition, shifting to a slower exchange regime at higher B₀ facilitates improved detection of the guanidinium protons of creatine and the inherently broad resonances of the amine protons in glutamate and the hydroxyl protons in myoinositol, glycogen, and glucosaminoglycans. Finally, due to the higher mobility of the contributing protons in CEST versus MTC, many new pulse sequences can be designed to more specifically edit for CEST signals and to remove MTC contributions.

Quantitative chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI of glioma using Image Downsampling Expedited Adaptive Least-squares (IDEAL) fitting

Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) MRI is sensitive to dilute metabolites with exchangeable protons, allowing tissue characterization in diseases such as acute stroke and tumor. CEST quantification using multi-pool Lorentzian fitting is challenging due to its strong dependence on image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), initial values and boundaries. Herein we proposed an Image Downsampling Expedited Adaptive Least-squares (IDEAL) fitting algorithm that quantifies CEST images based on initial values from multi-pool Lorentzian fitting of iteratively less downsampled images until the original resolution. The IDEAL fitting in phantom data with superimposed noise provided smaller coefficient of variation and higher contrast-to-noise ratio at a faster fitting speed compared to conventional fitting. We further applied the IDEAL fitting to quantify CEST MRI in rat gliomas and confirmed its advantage for in vivo CEST quantification. In addition to significant changes in amide proton transfer and semisolid macromolecular magnetization transfer effects, the IDEAL fitting revealed pronounced negative contrasts of tumors in the fitted CEST maps at 2 ppm and −1.6 ppm, likely arising from changes in creatine level and nuclear overhauser effects, which were not found using conventional method. It is anticipated that the proposed method can be generalized to quantify MRI data where SNR is suboptimal.

Tissue Characterization with Quantitative High-Resolution Magic Angle Spinning Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer Z-Spectroscopy

Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) provides sensitive magnetic resonance (MR) contrast for probing dilute compounds via exchangeable protons, serving as an emerging molecular imaging methodology. CEST Z-spectrum is often acquired by sweeping radiofrequency saturation around bulk water resonance, offset by offset, to detect CEST effects at characteristic chemical shift offsets, which requires prolonged acquisition time. Herein, combining high-resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) with concurrent application of gradient and rf saturation to achieve fast Z-spectral acquisition, we demonstrated the feasibility of fast quantitative HRMAS CEST Z-spectroscopy. The concept was validated with phantoms, which showed excellent agreement with results obtained from conventional HRMAS MR spectroscopy (MRS). We further utilized the HRMAS Z-spectroscopy for fast ex vivo quantification of ischemic injury with rodent brain tissues after ischemic stroke. This method allows rapid and quantitative CEST characterization of biological tissues and shows potential for a host of biomedical applications.