Abstract #0213

Amide Proton Transfer (APT) Imaging of Acute Cerebral Infarction: A Preliminary Study on Clinical Patients

Takashi Yoshiura¹, Akio Hiwatashi¹, Osamu Togao², Jochen Keupp³, Koji Yamashita¹, Kazufumi Kikuchi¹, Yuriko Suzuki⁴, Makoto Obara⁴, Hiroshi Honda¹

¹Department of Clinical Radiology, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, NA, Japan; ²Department of Molecular Imaging and Diagnosis, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, NA, Japan; ³Technical Systems, Philips Research Laboratories, Hamburg, NA, Germany; ⁴Philips Electronics Japan, Tokyo, NA, Japan

Animal experiments have shown that APT imaging can detect lowered pH in acute cerebral infarction, but evidence for human stroke patients is extremely limited in amount. Our purpose was to test the feasibility of APT imaging in assessing clinical acute infarction. APT imaging data from 8 patients with acute infarctions showed significantly reduced APT signal in infarcted tissue compared to normal tissue, demonstrating the clinical feasibility of APT imaging. Moreover, we found that APT contrast between normal ad infarcted tissues was critically dependent on the saturation time, suggesting the importance of imaging parameter optimization.