The Impact of Sub-Optimal Pulse Sequence Implementations on XTC MRI Measurements

Kai Ruppert¹, Ching-Ling Teng¹, Isabel M. Dregely², Jaime F. Mata¹, Talissa A. Altes¹, G. Wilson Miller¹, John P. Mugler III¹

Over the years Xenon polarization Transfer Contrast (XTC) MRI has been implemented in several different variants that conceptually all measure the same quantities. Expanding on recent work by Hrovat et al we investigated how specific XTC MRI sequence implementations and violations of the underlying model assumptions affect the measured quantities using numerical simulations. We found that the delay time between consecutive contrast-generating RF pulse pairs should be held constant and the flip angle should be at least 120 to minimize measurement errors.