Abstract #0935

Iron Imaging Using SWIFT in a Rat Model of Traumatic Brain Injury

Lauri Lehto¹, Curtis Corum², Djaudat Idiyatullin², Asla Pitknen¹,³, Michael Garwood², Olli Grhn¹, Alejandra Sierra¹

¹Department of Neurobiology, A. I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; ²Center for Magnetic Resonance Research and Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical, Minneapolis, MN, United States; ³Department of Neurology, Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland

Intracranial hemorrhage is a consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Bleeding is the result of mechanical damage, triggering secondary events, such as neuronal hyperexcitability, toxicity, or inflammation. The accumulation of blood in brain tissue results in high iron content deposits, which are paramagnetic and detectable by MRI. To study iron deposits after TBI, we utilized SWIFT (sweep imaging with Fourier transformation), that is an almost zero acquisition delay pulse sequence using gapped frequency swept pulses. Even though there is no time for phase accumulation at k=0, as during a gradient echo, phase behavior is still seen in the acquired data.