1Advanced
Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United
States; 2Dept. of Bioengineering, UT Arlington, Arlington, TX,
United States; 3Dept. of Radiology, New York University Langone
Medical Center, New York, NY, United States
Measurement of venous oxygenation (Yv) is a critical step toward quantitative assessment of brain oxygen metabolism, a key index in many brain disorders. The present study aims to develop a non-invasive, rapid, and reproducible method to measure Yv in a vessel-specific manner. The method, T2-Relaxation-Under-Phase-Contrast (TRU-PC) MRI, utilizes complex subtraction of phase-contrast to isolate pure blood signal, applies non-slice-selective T2-preparation to measure T2, and converts T2 to oxygenation using calibration plot. Following feasibility demonstration, several technical aspects were examined, including validation with an established global Yv technique, test-retest reproducibility, and ability to study veins with a caliber of 1-2 mm.