Audrey Peiwen Fan1, Berkin Bilgic1,
Thomas Benner2, Bruce R. Rosen2,3, Elfar Adalsteinsson1,3
1Electrical Engineering
& Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA,
United States; 2Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for
Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, MA, United States; 3Health
Sciences & Technology, Harvard-MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States
Venous oxygen saturation (Yv) is an important indicator for brain function and absolute quantification of Yv is critical to estimation of the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2). Here we implement an l1-regularized quantitative susceptibility mapping technique to measure Yv in cerebral veins at 7T without assumptions about vessel orientation and geometry. QSM measurements in parallel vessel segments resulted in mean Yv = 61.2% and were comparable to mean Yv = 62.1% estimated with MR susceptometry. QSM measurements in curved, in-plane vessel segments resulted in mean Yv = 66.7%, which lies in expected physiological range.