Guruprasad Krishnamoorthy1, Ravi Prakash Reddy Nanga1, Puneet Bagga1, Hari Hariharan1, and Ravinder Reddy1
Osteoarthritis (OA), one
of the most prevalent musculoskeletal conditions, affects a large number of
people around the world with an increased risk on an even larger number of
people getting affected by it in the future [1]. GAG chemical exchange saturation
transfer (gagCEST) is a promising MRI technique to non-invasively quantify GAG content
present in the cartilages [2]. In this study, a new burst mode
magnetization preparation 3D gagCEST technique was developed which provided high-resolution
gagCEST maps of knee cartilages in practically achievable scan times at 7T with
more than twice the sensitivity of the previously reported steady-state
saturation 3D gagCEST study [5].
