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Abstract #3244

Differentiating microscopic field inhomogeneity induced relaxation from R 2 and R 2 * relaxations with magnetic field correlation imaging

Chu-Yu Lee 1,2 , Xingju Nie 1,2 , Jens H Jensen 1,2 , Vitria Adisetiyo 1,2 , Qingwei Liu 3 , and Joseph A Helpern 1,2

1 Department of Radiology and Radiology Science, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, United States, 2 Center for Biomedical Imaging, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, United States, 3 Neuroimaging research, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ, United States

In biological tissues, the presence of iron-rich cells, deoxygenated red blood cells or a paramagnetic agent generates micron-scale variations of magnetic susceptibility, resulting in microscopic magnetic field inhomogeneities (μMFI). Therefore, it is possible to characterize in vivo tissue properties through quantifying the μMFI. The relaxation rates R2, R2*, and R2′ have been previously used to quantify the relaxation due to μMFI. An alternative approach is magnetic field correlation (MFC) imaging, where the measured MFC is closely linked to the μMFI. MFC has been shown to effectively reflect iron depositions in the brain during normal aging and disease processes. A prior study compared MFC, R2, and R2* for cell suspensions with different Gadolinium (Gd) contrast agent concentrations. However, the distinction between these measures has not been investigated with structure-induced variable μMFI. In this work, we investigate how MFC, R2, R2*, R2′ change in phantoms with distinct μMFI properties.

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