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Abstract #4939

High Repeatability of Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) in the Head and Neck With a View to Detecting Hypoxic Cancer Sites

Anita Karsa1, Shonit Punwani2, and Karin Shmueli1

1Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom, 2Centre for Medical Imaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom

As hypoxic tumours in the head-and-neck are more resistant to radiation therapy, there is a pressing clinical need to measure tumour oxygenation non-invasively. Since deoxyhemoglobin in the blood, which indicates hypoxia, is paramagnetic, QSM is a candidate technique. Here, we tested QSM’s repeatability in various head-and-neck regions in ten healthy volunteers to investigate the feasibility of detecting the susceptibility difference expected to result from hypoxia. We found low minimum detectable effect sizes in the lymph nodes (0.12 ppm), submandibular glands (0.08 ppm), and parotid glands (0.04 ppm). This high QSM repeatability paves the way for clinical studies.

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