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Proton T 1ρ ‐dispersion imaging of rodent brain at 1.9 T
Author(s) -
Rizi Rahim R.,
Charagundla Sridhar R.,
Song Hee Kwon,
Reddy Ravinder,
Stolpen Alan H.,
Schnall Mitchell D.,
Leigh John S.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.1880080514
Subject(s) - dispersion (optics) , nuclear magnetic resonance , proton , perfusion scanning , scanner , physics , nuclear medicine , materials science , biomedical engineering , optics , perfusion , medicine , radiology , nuclear physics
Detection of H 2 17 O with proton T 1ρ ‐dispersion imaging holds promise as a means of quantifying metabolism and blood flow with MRI. However, this technique requires a priori knowledge of the intrinsic T 1ρ dispersion of tissue. To investigate these properties, we implemented a T 1ρ imaging sequence on a 1.9‐T Signa GE scanner. A series of T 1ρ images for different locking frequencies and locking durations were obtained from rat brain in vivo and compared with 5 % (wt/vol) gelatin phantoms containing different concentrations of 17 O ranging from .037 % (natural abundance) to 2.0 atom%. Results revealed that, although there is considerable T 1ρ ‐dispersion in phantoms doped with H 2 17 O, the T 1ρ of rat brain undergoes minimal dispersion for spin‐locking frequencies between .2 and 1.5 kHz. A small degree of T 1ρ dispersion is present below .2 kHz, which we postulate arises from natural‐abundance H 2 17 O. Moreover, the signal‐to‐noise ratios of T 1ρ ‐weighted images are significantly better than comparable T2‐weighted images, allowing for improved visualization of tissue contrast. We have also demonstrated the feasibility of proton T 1ρ ‐dispersion imaging for detecting intravenous H 2 17 O on a live mouse brain. The potential application of this technique to study brain perfusion is discussed.