Abstract #4225

Quantitative Magnetization Transfer Imaging with Non-Exchanging Compartment Modeling: from CSF Partial Volume Correction to More Accurate Characterization of White Matter?

Pouria Mossahebi¹, Andrew L. Alexander²,³, Aaron S. Field,¹⁴, Alexey A. Samsonov⁴

¹Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; ²Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; ³Waisman Lab for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States; ⁴Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States

This study was performed to investigate the effect of non-exchanging component in quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) parameters estimation. We have introduced third (non-exchanging or very slowly exchanging) pool to the common two-pool model used in majority of qMT imaging. The presence of such non-exchanging or very slowly exchanging compartments may result in significant underestimation of key parameters of qMT, especially in gray matter (GM) where significant partial volume effect (PVE) from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Our results show that this model can remove partial volume effect (PVE) from non-exchanging pool on qMT parameters maps.