Jrgen Rahmer1, Jochen Keupp1, Shelton D. Caruthers2,3, Oliver Lips1, Todd A. Williams3, Samuel A. Wickline3, Gregory M. Lanza3
1Philips Research Europe, Hamburg, Germany; 2Philips Healthcare, Andover, MA, USA; 3Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA
19F-labeled diagnostic or therapeutic agents, like targeted perfluorocarbon nanoparticles, offer a high potential for quantified molecular MRI with excellent specificity. For anatomical co-registration of the fluorine signal, a proton image of the morphology is needed. Simultaneous 19F/1H imaging was shown to be an ideal approach to timeefficient recording of molecular information and morphology. An unmet need of truly simultaneous imaging is to satisfy the substantially different requirements on sensitivity and resolution between the 19F and 1H acquisition, while being constrained to a single choice of gradient strengths. This work presents in vivo results of angiogenesis-targeted imaging of Vx-2 tumors in rabbits, demonstrating that 3D radial simultaneous acquisition offers an SNR-efficient way to acquire 19F and 1H images at different resolutions at the same time. The basic principle is to modify the weight applied to samples in the gridding reconstruction.