Abstract #2481

Lenkinski R, Vinogradov E, Sherry A, Frangioni J, Balschi J, Humblet V, Lubag A, He H

Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) imaging detects exchange mediated saturation transfer between bound and bulk protons. Exogenous paramagnetic lanthanide complexes (PARACEST) exhibit slow exchange kinetics and large chemical shifts for the lanthanide-bound water molecule. This study used low power (B1 ~200Hz) WALTZ-16 pulses at the bulk water resonance frequency to detect the image contrast effects due to the PARACEST (Tm-DOTA4AmC) agent in-vivo. Contrast changes due to the PARACEST in the kidneys of mice were observed. At 40 mM PARACEST bolus contrast effect of up to 70% were measured. Studies are underway to quantify the low-detection limit for PARACEST in vivo.