Methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging

Thesis (Ph. D. in Biomedical Engineering)--Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, 2013.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Scheidegger, Rachel Nora
Other Authors: David C. Alsop.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79251
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author Scheidegger, Rachel Nora
author2 David C. Alsop.
author_facet David C. Alsop.
Scheidegger, Rachel Nora
author_sort Scheidegger, Rachel Nora
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description Thesis (Ph. D. in Biomedical Engineering)--Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, 2013.
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spelling mit-1721.1/792512019-04-11T11:06:02Z Methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging Methods for CEST MRI Scheidegger, Rachel Nora David C. Alsop. Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. Thesis (Ph. D. in Biomedical Engineering)--Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, 2013. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-126). Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) is a relatively new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisition technique that generates contrast dependent on tissue microenvironment, such as protein concentration and intracellular pH. CEST imaging has the potential to become an important biomarker in a wide range of disorders. As an indicator of tissue pH, CEST imaging may allow the identification of the ischemic penumbra in stroke, and predict chemo- and radiation therapy outcomes in cancer. As a marker of protein concentration, CEST may be able to delineate tumor margins without contrast enhancement, identify disease onset in Alzheimer's disease, and monitor cartilage repair therapies. Despite several promising pilot studies, CEST imaging has had limited clinical application due to two main technical challenges. First, CEST imaging is extremely sensitive to magnetic field inhomogeneity. Images suffer from large susceptibility artifacts unless specialized BO inhomogeneity correction methods are employed that tremendously increase scan time. Second, the CEST contrast cannot be separated from the intrinsic macromolecular magnetization transfer (MT) asymmetry and brain images reflect the MT properties of white and gray matter rather than the desired protein and pH contrast. We have developed a novel CEST imaging acquisition scheme, dubbed saturation with frequency alternating RF irradiation (SAFARI), designed to be insensitive to Bo inhomogeneity and MT asymmetry. Studies in healthy volunteers demonstrate that SAFARI is robust in the presence of BO inhomogeneity and eliminates the need for specialized BO correction, thereby reducing scan time. In addition, results show that SAFARI removes the confounding MT asymmetry. We applied SAFARI imaging towards the study of the saturation transfer contrast in patients with high grade glioma. Results show that the contrast in brain tumors, which was previously attributed to an increase in the CEST signal from amide protons due to an elevated protein concentration, is instead the result of the loss of MT asymmetry found in the normal brain. Therefore, our work has lead to a new understanding of the different sources of signal in saturation transfer images of the brain with important implications for the design and analysis of future CEST studies of brain tumors. by Rachel Nora Scheidegger. Ph.D.in Biomedical Engineering 2013-06-17T19:50:40Z 2013-06-17T19:50:40Z 2013 2013 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79251 846481141 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 126 p. application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
Scheidegger, Rachel Nora
Methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging
title Methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging
title_full Methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging
title_fullStr Methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging
title_full_unstemmed Methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging
title_short Methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging
title_sort methods for chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance imaging
topic Harvard--MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/79251
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