Thrombus composition and age in ischemic occlusion can significantly influence treatment efficacy, yet current MR characterization methods are qualitative and cannot distinguish between the effects of red blood cell age and concentration (hematocrit). We examined the ability of R2* and quantitative susceptibility (QS) maps derived simultaneously from multi-echo GRE acquisition to discriminate between blood clots of varied hematocrit formed in vitro and monitored over a six-day ageing period. Fresh clots (age < 6 hours) of different hematocrit were distinguishable using either R2* or QS values, while aged clots were distinguishable only when both values were considered.
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