Modeling MT Effect of Bound Water Pool & Its Use in Correction of CEST Contrast for MT Asymmetry

Anup Singh¹, Kejia Cai¹, Mohammad Haris Haris¹, Hari Hariharan¹, Ravinder Reddy¹

Magnetization transfer (MT) effect, exhibited by water protons bound to solid like macromolecules, measured using z-spectra technique of MRI, is used to explore macromolecular environment of tissue under consideration. MT asymmetry interferes with CEST contrast computation and usually results in underestimation or complete suppression of true CEST contrast. A method for modeling pure MT effect, using few frequency data of z-spectra, is presented. Modeled MT curve was used for removing MT asymmetry contribution in CEST contrast computation. Method was validated using simulations and in-vivo brain data. Presented method is simple, robust and insensitive to field in-homogeneities.