Audrey Peiwen Fan1,
Sindhuja Tirumalai Govindarajan2, R. Philip Kinkel3,
Bruce R. Rosen2, 4, Elfar Adalsteinsson1,
2, Caterina Mainero2, 4
1Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, MA, United States; 2Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos
Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA, United States; 3Neurology,
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States; 4Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
This work evaluates the reproducibility of quantitative oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) measurements in adult volunteers and in patients with MS at 7 Tesla. Mean cortical OEF was evaluated from MRI gradient echo phase images in pial vessels parallel to the main field. We observed excellent intra-observer OEF agreement in a cohort of 5 patients and 5 controls, with coefficient of variation (COV) = 2.1%. Scan-rescan reproducibility a week apart in healthy subjects was also acceptable, with COV = 5.9%. This study supports use of quantitative phase-based OEF as a reliable MRI method to assess oxygenation in the brain.
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