Phillip Zhe Sun1, Charng-Ming Liu1, Philip K. Liu1, Renhua Wu2, 3
1Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA, United States; 2Department of Radiology, 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Shantou University Medical College, Shantou, Guangdong, China; 3Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Imaging, Shantou, Guangdong, China
CEST MRI measures dilute CEST agents and microenvironment properties, holding promise for in vivo applications. Because of confounding concomitant RF irradiation and relaxation effects, CEST-weighted MRI contrast, however, may not fully characterize the underlying CEST phenomenon. We postulated that the accuracy of quantitative CEST MRI could be improved if the labeling efficiency and RF spillover factor were estimated and taken into account. The simulation was confirmed with a multi-compartment Creatine CEST phantom of serial concentration. The proposed solution provides simplified yet reasonably accurate quantification of the underlying CEST system, which may help guide the ongoing development of quantitative CEST MRI.