Differentiation and Quantification of Exchanging Protons in Different Pool Resonating at the Same Frequency in CEST

Olivier E. Mougin¹, Penelope A. Gowland²

CEST is increasingly used to study a wide range of endogenous and exogenous species. However different species of interest overlap in the z-spectra even at high field due to line broadening caused by exchange. Here we propose a new combination of acquisition and analysis approaches to separate fast and slow exchanging species. Simulation and experimentation of a z-spectra database for two pools exchanging at different rates is presented here, and was used successfully in fitting pool protons overlapping on the z-spectra, both numerically and empirically.