Quantitative MR Imaging of the Amide-Proton Transfer, the Nuclear Overhauser Effect & MT Asymmetry: A 9.4 T Study

Tao Jin¹, Xiaopeng Zong¹, Ping Wang¹, Seong-Gi Kim¹

The amide proton transfer (APT) effect has shown great potential in stroke and cancer studies. However, quantitative imaging of the APT effect is still challenging. The magnitude of APT is typically assessed from an MTR asymmetry image, which may have contamination from the conventional MT asymmetry and the Nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE). In this report, the wide spectral separation from the high field of 9.4 T is utilized to obtain quantitative APT and NOE images without using the asymmetry analysis. We found that pure APT contrast is highly sensitive to pH, while the NOE map has little tissue and pH contrast.