Clemens Diwoky1, Andreas Reinisch2, Dieter Gross3, Volker Lehmann3, Dirk Strunk2, Rudolf Stollberger1
1Inst. of Medical Engineering, TU Graz, Graz, Austria; 2Stem Cell Research Unit, Dept. of Hematology, Univ. Clinic of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria; 3Dept. of Microimaging, Bruker BioSpin GmbH, Rheinstetten, Germany
For the detection of single SPIO loaded cells 3D GRE sequences with small isotropic imaging volumes are essential. Unfortunately they are highly time consuming and not applicable in a clinical setup. An alternative are 2D GRE acquisitions with enlarged slices. However, signal variations caused by global SPIO induced field inhomogeneities reduce their usefulness for cell detection. To enhance detectability, we propose the use of 2D UTE sequences with positive SPIO contrast. As a visual benchmark, the outstanding performance of UTE compared to 2D GRE is shown on a new in-vitro model consisting of cell networks build by endothelial progenitor cells.