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Magnetisation transfer effects of Q2TIPS pulses in ASL

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Abstract

Object

In pulsed arterial spin labelling (ASL), Q2TIPS saturation pulses are used to actively control the temporal width of the labelled bolus. However, these Q2TIPS pulses also induce magnetisation transfer (MT) effects in the adjacent tissue. In this work, we investigated how Q2TIPS-related MT alters tissue signal in pulsed ASL and, consequently, CBF quantification.

Materials and methods

Seven volunteers were studied at 3 tesla using a multi-TI FAIR sequence and 3D-GRASE readout with background suppression. Q2TIPS pulses were used and the spacing between RF pulses was varied to modulate MT effects. Computer simulations were designed to mimic in-vivo signals at multiple TI values.

Results

Q2TIPS-associated MT was found to reduce tissue T1 and M0 values by up to 42 and 50% respectively; leading to a reduction of up to 40% in the effectiveness of background suppression and, therefore, increased sensitivity to motion for the longest TI values. In addition, greater MT effects were associated with reduced grey matter CBF estimates of up to 15%.

Conclusions

The MT effect associated with the Q2TIPS pulse train has a significant effect on tissue signal. It is recommended that MT effects are characterised and both background suppression and Q2TIPS schemes are accordingly optimised to reduce the effects of MT on accuracy and precision of CBF estimation.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank all the volunteers that gave their time for this project. Special thanks to Dr Michael Chappell from the FMRIB in Oxford for providing the authors with a version of FSL-BASIL before its public release, with documentation on its use. We also thank the paper reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. This work was undertaken at University College London Hospitals/University College London, which received a proportion of funding from the Department of Health’s National Institute for Health Research Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre funding scheme. The Collaboration between M.G and UCL was facilitated by European COST Action BM1103 on “Arterial spin labelling Initiative in Dementia (AID)”. M.G. was in part funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) under grant number 01EV0702.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lysholm Department of Neuroradiology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Queen Square, Box 65, London, WC1N 3BG, UK

    Enrico De Vita & Xavier Golay

  2. Academic Neuroradiological Unit, Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3BG, UK

    Enrico De Vita, Xavier Golay & David L. Thomas

  3. Mediri GmbH, Heidelberg, Germany

    Matthias Günther

  4. Fraunhofer MEVIS-Institute for Medical Image Computing, Bremen, Germany

    Matthias Günther

  5. Faculty for Physics and Electrical Engineering, University Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Matthias Günther

Authors
  1. Enrico De Vita
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  2. Matthias Günther
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  3. Xavier Golay
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  4. David L. Thomas
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Correspondence to Enrico De Vita.

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De Vita, E., Günther, M., Golay, X. et al. Magnetisation transfer effects of Q2TIPS pulses in ASL. Magn Reson Mater Phy 25, 113–126 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-011-0298-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-011-0298-z

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