The transverse relaxation attributed to spin dephasing, caused by microscopic field inhomogeneities throughout a single imaging voxel, induced by the BOLD-mechanism, is studied using realistic three-dimensional microvascular structures, attained with fluorescence ultramicroscopy from mouse brains, and custom-written simulations to uncover differences between glioblastoma and healthy brain tissue. The signal attenuation is weaker and more heterogeneous in tumor tissue. Relaxation rates scale differently with varying field strengths or blood properties and the relaxation processes exhibit strong deviations from Lorentzian decay. The results are important for the development of signal processing methods for tumor diagnosis without contrast agents.
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