Robert L. Janiczek1, 2, Christopher D.J. Sinclair2, Giulio Gambarota3, Xavier Golay2, Rexford D. Newbould4, John S. Thornton2
1Global Imaging Unit, GlaxoSmithKline, London, United Kingdom; 2Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom; 3Pharmaceutical and Biological Sciences, Universit de Rennes 1, Rennes, France; 4Imanova Ltd., London, United Kingdom
A reduced magnetization transfer (MT) effect has been observed in muscles affected by neuromuscular diseases due to a combination of lipid infiltration, edema, and/or macromolecular differences relative to healthy muscle. Lipid infiltration can therefore mask MT changes due edema and biologically important macromolecular abnormalities. This work presents a technique, MT-IDEAL, that combines a chemical-species separation imaging technique, IDEAL, with an MT imaging acquisition. MT-IDEAL uses multiple echoes to increase SNR as well as produce fat fraction, T2*, and water-isolated MTR maps with no scan time penalty.
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