Imaging Vitreous Oxygen Tension with Rapid Look-Locker T1 Measurement and Calibration with ex vivo Eyes

Eric R. Muir¹, Yi Zhang¹, Oscar San Emeterio Nateras¹, Timothy Q. Duong¹, ²

Abnormal vitreal oxygen tension (pO2) has been implicated in a number of ocular and retinal diseases. MRI could be used to non-invasively map pO2 of the human vitreous since T1 is affected by pO2. In this study MRI methods were developed to measure pO2 in the human vitreous using the Look-Locker sequence to rapidly measure T1 to minimize eye motion. Calibration of T1 to pO2 was made using ex vivo vitreous in addition to water phantoms to provide more accurate pO2 calculation from T1. Human vitreous pO2 was found to be 26.87.5mmHg with MRI, comparable to reports of invasive measurement.