On the transmit field inhomogeneity correction of relaxation-compensated amide and NOE CEST effects at 7 T

Abstract

High field MRI is beneficial for chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) in terms of high SNR, CNR, and chemical shift dispersion. These advantages may, however, be counter-balanced by the increased transmit field inhomogeneity normally associated with high field MRI. The relatively high sensitivity of the CEST contrast to B1 inhomogeneity necessitates the development of correction methods, which is essential for the clinical translation of CEST. In this work, two B1 correction algorithms for the most studied CEST effects, amide-CEST and nuclear Overhauser enhancement (NOE), were analyzed. Both methods rely on fitting the multi-pool Bloch-McConnell equations to the densely sampled CEST spectra. In the first method, the correction is achieved by using a linear B1 correction of the calculated amide and NOE CEST effects. The second method uses the Bloch-McConnell fit parameters and the desired B1 amplitude to recalculate the CEST spectra, followed by the calculation of B1 -corrected amide and NOE CEST effects. Both algorithms were systematically studied in Bloch-McConnell equations and in human data, and compared with the earlier proposed ideal interpolation-based B1 correction method. In the low B1 regime of 0.15-0.50 μT (average power), a simple linear model was sufficient to mitigate B1 inhomogeneity effects on a par with the interpolation B1 correction, as demonstrated by a reduced correlation of the CEST contrast with B1 in both the simulations and the experiments.