Abstract #0189

Wiener E, Boada F

MR cell tracking studies capitalize on the strong B0 inhomogeneity defect produced by small paramagnetic particles (SPA). Recent studies have demonstrated the sensitivity of such approaches for detecting cell migration during organ transplant and stem cell implantation (1). Although the contrast mechanism that SPA-based approaches rely on is very effective, the signal loss due to the large field inhomogeneity could sometimes limit the usefulness of the technique. In this work we present a theoretical and experimental demonstration of the use of dual-echo, ultra-short echo time difference (USTED) data acquisitions for improving the usefulness of T2*-weighted scans in cell tracking studies.