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Abstract #2545

A Multi-Echo Length and Offset VARied Saturation (Me-LOVARS) CEST Method

Xiaolei Song1, 2, Jiadi Xu1, 2, Shuli Xia3, Nirbhay N. Yadav1, 2, Bachchu Lal3, Jeff W.M. Bulte, 24, John Laterra3, Peter C.M. van Zijl1, 2, Michael T. McMahon1, 2

1Division of MR Research, The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; 3Department of Neuro-Oncology, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; 4Division of MR Research, The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States


Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) has become an important method to generate MRI contrast, with applications in the imaging of strokes and cancer. We present an efficient CEST imaging method, named Multi-echo Length and Offset VARied Saturation (Me-LOVARS), which allows acquiring a series of Z-spectra at multiple tsat values, without extra scan time cost. When using Me-LOVARS for imaging mice baring glioblastomas, 3 Z-spectra with saturation length of 0.8sec., 1.6sec. and 2.4sec were acquired, using same time as one conventional Zspectrum. The contrast-noise-ratio of B0-corrected MTRasym maps using Me-LOVARS is also comparable to the conventional method with the same tsat.