David Thomas Pilkinton1, Mark A. Elliott1,
Jeremy Magland2, Ravinder Reddy1
1Center for Magnetic Resonance and
Optical Imaging, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States;
2Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA
To
maximize signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and minimize relaxation weighting,
ultra-short echo (UTE) readouts have been generally been favored for sodium
MRI. UTE methods have also been used to measure total sodium concentration
(TSC) in tissues, although this typically requires accurate mapping of the B1
field which is typically noisy and error prone. A more reliable quantitative parameter for
sodium MRI is the measurement of the long component of the transverse
relaxation time, T2L*. In this study,
we have implemented a robust sodium imaging sequence for simultaneous UTE
imaging and T2L* measurements.
Keywords