Xiaolei Song1, 2, Amnon Bar-Shir1, 3, Yajie Liang1, 3, Guanshu Liu1, 2, Assaf A. Gilad1, 3, Jeff W.M. Bulte1, 3, Peter C.M. van Z
1Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2F.M.Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute , Baltimore, MD, United States; 3Cellular Imaging Section, Institute for Cell Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
CEST imaging is an emerging new technology with great promise for molecular imaging applications. Unfortunately, current CEST imaging schemes produce images with a large signal losses due to interference of conventional magnetization transfer and direct water saturation effects, especially for in vivo. We have developed a new method in which cosine-modulated dual-band pulses are inserted into the saturation module. These pulses shift the water-dip in Z-spectra, providing a reduction in conventional magnetization transfer effects. We have collected images on both DIACEST phantoms and 9L tumors in vivo, with the CNR of the resulting images improved over previous methods.