Rachel Scheidegger1,2, Elena Vinogradov1,3,
David C. Alsop1,3
1Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess
Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States; 2Health Sciences and
Technology, Harvard-MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States; 3Radiology,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Amide
Proton Transfer (APT) imaging is readily contaminated by asymmetric
magnetization transfer and off-resonance errors. Improved robustness to these
errors can be achieved using a 3-way subtraction between positive frequency,
negative frequency, and combined frequency RF irradiation. Whole slice APT
imaging using this approach and without additional acquisitions or
corrections is demonstrated in-vivo in human volunteers. The 3-way
subtraction was found to significantly improve the APT map homogeneity by
reducing susceptibility artifacts and MT asymmetry effects. This method may
improve the feasibility of APT imaging for clinical applications.