Abstract #1438

Z-Spectrum Fitting for CEST Contrast Computation in In Vivo Myocardium Tissue

Anup Singh¹, Mohammad Haris¹, Kejia Cai¹, Feliks Kogan¹, Walter R.T. Witschey¹,², Gerald A. Zsido², Jeremy McGarvey², Ravi Prakash Reddy Nanga¹, Francisco Contijoch³, James J. Pilla, Joseph H. Gorman², Victor A. Ferrari⁴, Hari Hariharan¹, Robert C. Gorman², Ravinder Reddy¹

¹CMROI, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; ²Department of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; ³Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; ⁴Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Objective of current study was to address the challenges associated with CEST contrast computation through conventional asymmetry analysis in in vivo myocardium tissues particularly due to fluctuating B₀ inhomogeneity (~[-0.2, 0.2]ppm), motion artifacts and low SNR. To address these challenges we adopted an approach of fitting z-spectra data with a function of Lorentzian functions. It is demonstrated that this approach mitigates artifacts due to motion and B₀ fluctuations and enables the CEST contrast computation in in vivo myocardium data. Moreover, there is no need for acquire B₀ field inhomogeneity correction as the center of water resonance is one of the parameters in fitting function.