A New, 3D GRE Based CEST Imaging Method for Clinical Application and Verification with GagCEST in Articular Cartilage

Benjamin Schmitt¹, Michael Bock¹, Bram Stieltjes, Peter Bachert¹

CEST imaging has been introduced as a new method to generate a various number of contrasts for MRI. However, the application of CEST imaging for clinical application has so far been limited by extensive scan-times. These long scan times were necessary to generate reproducible CEST images and often restricted to single-slice acquisitions. We introduce a new, 3D CEST imaging sequence based on RF-spoiled gradient echo which can theoretically be used in a various number of CEST applications. The functionality is exemplified using gagCEST to determine the vitality of knee cartilage in a 3D volume.