Simultaneous Spin Echo and Gradient Echo for fMRI Using the USPIO Agent Ferumoxytol in Humans: Enhanced Sensitivity and Potentials for High Resolution Mapping

Deqiang Qiu¹, Thomas Christen¹, Wendy W. Ni¹, Heiko Schmiedeskamp¹, Greg Zaharchuk¹, Michael E. Moseley¹

In this paper, we present the study of the use of ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron particle (USPIO) for fMRI (termed ICE-BVI) using both gradient and spin echo methods. The contrast to noise ratio (CNR) of ICE-BVI was found to be of up to a factor of 3.8 higher than BOLD for gradient echo based method, and the gain is about a factor of 2 for spin echo based method. ICE-BVI has the potential of increasing robustness and accuracy for presurgical mapping and enhanced sensitivity in studying cognitive neuroscience.