Miko H. de Haas1,2, Huihui Ye2,3, Howard H. Chen2,4, Eric M. Gale2,4, Eszter Boros2,4, Peter Caravan2,4, Kawin Setsompop2,4, and David E. Sosnovik2,4
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 2Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, 3Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science and the Key Laboratory for Biomedical Engineering of Education Ministry of China, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, People's Republic of, 4Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School - Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
MR contrast agents are typically imaged
using time-consuming sequences, which allows only one parameter of relaxation
to be assessed. In this research we used Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting
(MRF) to rapidly assess both T1 and
T2, and
these values were then used to calculate contrast agent concentrations. The
primary goal was to quantify two contrast agents residing in a mixed sample.
The method showed an accuracy greater than 90% in most cases,
indicating its feasibility. In addition, the method was also able to
quantify the bound and unbound state of a targeted contrast agent in near
real-time.