Abstract #2472

In Vivo Estimation of the Transverse Relaxation Time Dependence of Blood on Oxygenation at 7 Tesla

Dimo Ivanov¹,², Andreas Schfer², Andreas Deistung³, Markus N. Streicher², Stefan Kabisch², Ilona Henseler², Elisabeth Roggenhofer², Thies H. Jochimsen⁴, Ferdinand Schweser⁵, Jrgen R. Reichenbach⁵, Kamil Uludag¹, Robert Turner²

¹Maastricht Brain Imaging Centre, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands; ²Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; ³Jena University Hospital - Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany; ⁴Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; ⁵Medical Physics Group, Jena University Hospital - Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany

The precise knowledge of the oxygenation dependence of the effective transverse relaxation time (T2*) of blood, within the physiologically relevant range will improve the quantitative understanding of the BOLD effect in gradient echo MRI at 7T along the vascular tree. Previous measurements of this dependence have been only reported in vitro and may be confounded by uncompensated susceptibility gradients between the sample and its surroundings. We present an approach of combining T2* and magnetic susceptibility mapping during different respiratory challenges for reliable determination of the change in the T2* of blood with oxygenation in vivo at 7T.