• Jiadi Xu, Nirbhay N Yadav, Amnon Bar-Shir, Craig K Jones, Kannie W Y Chan, Jiangyang Zhang, P Walczak, Michael T McMahon, and Peter C M van Zijl.
• Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Research Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
• Magn Reson Med. 2014 May 1; 71 (5): 1798-812.

PurposeChemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging is a new MRI technology allowing the detection of low concentration endogenous cellular proteins and metabolites indirectly through their exchangeable protons. A new technique, variable delay multi-pulse CEST (VDMP-CEST), is proposed to eliminate the need for recording full Z-spectra and performing asymmetry analysis to obtain CEST contrast.MethodsThe VDMP-CEST scheme involves acquiring images with two (or more) delays between radiofrequency saturation pulses in pulsed CEST, producing a series of CEST images sensitive to the speed of saturation transfer. Subtracting two images or fitting a time series produces CEST and relayed-nuclear Overhauser enhancement CEST maps without effects of direct water saturation and, when using low radiofrequency power, minimal magnetization transfer contrast interference.ResultsWhen applied to several model systems (bovine serum albumin, crosslinked bovine serum albumin, l-glutamic acid) and in vivo on healthy rat brain, VDMP-CEST showed sensitivity to slow to intermediate range magnetization transfer processes (rate < 100-150 Hz), such as amide proton transfer and relayed nuclear Overhauser enhancement-CEST. Images for these contrasts could be acquired in short scan times by using a single radiofrequency frequency.ConclusionsVDMP-CEST provides an approach to detect CEST effect by sensitizing saturation experiments to slower exchange processes without interference of direct water saturation and without need to acquire Z-spectra and perform asymmetry analysis.Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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