Olaf Dietrich1,
Johannes Levin2, Armin Giese3, Annika Plate2,
Kai Btzel2, Maximilian F. Reiser, 1, Birgit
Ertl-Wagner
1Josef
Lissner Laboratory for Biomedical Imaging, Institute for Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University
Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany; 2Department of Neurology,
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany; 3Center
for Neuropathology and Prion Research, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Hospital
Munich, Munich, Germany
The purpose of the present study is to demonstrate the different behaviors of ferric and ferrous iron ions in MRI and to suggest a technique to differentiate quantitatively between both forms of iron in tissue. A phantom consisting of tubes with different concentrations of ferrous and ferric chloride solutions was examined on a 3-Tesla MRI system. A multi-echo gradient-echo was used for both T2* and quantitative susceptibility measurements. Ferrous and ferric chloride show markedly different relaxation behaviors in MRI, but similar influences on the susceptibility. These properties can be used to differentiate ferrous and ferric samples.