Jochen Keupp1, Osamu Togao2, Jinyuan Zhou3, Yuriko Suzuki4, Takashi Yoshiura2
1Philips Research, Hamburg, Germany; 2Department of Clinical Radiology, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan; 3Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; 4Philips Electronics Japan, Tokyo, Japan
Amide proton transfer (APT) offers a novel route to sensitive MR molecular imaging of endogenous cytosolic proteins and is expected to play an important role in delineation/classification of active tumor tissue for therapy planning/monitoring. The length of RF saturation (Tsat) is a key for sensitivity, in particular at low protein concentrations. With novel parallel transmission based techniques, Tsat>1s is possible on clinical scanners. A thorough protocol optimization is needed for tumor contrast and contrast-to-noise ratio. In a phantom study and acquiring first exemplary clinical brain tumor data, the effect of Tsat on the APT contrast is studied in the range of Tsat=0.5s up to 4s.