Development of a Spin Echo Gradient Echo Sequence for Simultaneous Assessment of the Biomarkers Vessel Size Index, Relative Blood Volume & Perfusion

Stefan Zwick¹, Wilfried Reichardt¹, Claudia Weidensteiner¹, Dominik von Elverfeldt¹

Aim of this work (supported by the 2010 ISMRM Seed-Grant) was to implement and evaluate a spin echo gradient echo sequence to realize pharmacokinetic modeling and VSI simultaneously, both based on R2 and R2* measurements. The sequence with EPI readouts was tested on phantoms consisting of several compartments with different CA concentrations. We evaluated the accuracy of our sequence to quantify the differences in R2 and R2* and compared the results to R2 and R2* measurements with standard sequences. The sequence is able to quantify the changes in relaxation rates and thus should enable pharmacokinetic modeling and VSI simultaneously.