Rapid In Vivo Quantification of Oxygen Concentration in Blood Flow with a Fluorine Nanoparticle Reporter & a Novel Blood Enhanced Saturation Recovery (BESR) Sequence

Lingzhi Hu¹, Junjie Chen¹, Shelton D. Caruthers¹, Gregory M. Lanza¹, Samuel A. Wickline¹

We demonstrate the application of PFC nanoemulsion as a blood oxygen pressure probe with use of a novel blood enhanced saturation recovery like (BESR) pulse sequence. Compared to the traditional Look-Locker sequence, the BESR sequence is insensitive to B1 and B0 field inhomogeneity and pulsatile in-flow effects. Compared to the traditional invasive measurement using cardiac catheter, the BESR sequence may provide a simple and rapid method for non-invasive assessment blood oxygenation in vivo.