Faculty Bibliography

Sodium NMR spectroscopy and MRI have become popular in recent years through the increased availability of high-field MRI scanners, advanced scanner hardware and improved methodology. Sodium MRI is being evaluated for stroke and tumor detection, for breast cancer studies, and for the assessment of osteoarthritis and muscle and kidney functions, to name just a few. In this article, we aim to present an up-to-date review of the theoretical background, the methodology, the challenges, limitations, and current and potential new applications of sodium MRI.

Solids and rigid tissues, such as bone, ligaments, and tendons, typically appear dark in MRI, which is due to the extremely short-lived proton nuclear magnetic resonance signals. This short lifetime is due to strong dipolar interactions between immobilized proton spins, which render it challenging to detect these signals with sufficient resolution and sensitivity. Here we show the possibility of exciting long-lived signals in cortical bone tissue with a signature consistent with that of bound water signals. It is further shown that dipolar coupling networks are an integral requirement for the excitation of these long-lived signals. The use of these signals could enhance the ability to visualize rigid tissues and solid samples with high resolution and sensitivity via MRI.

The development of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) has led to the establishment of new contrast mechanisms in magnetic resonance imaging, which serve as enablers for advanced molecular imaging strategies. Macromolecules in tissues and organs often give rise to broad and asymmetric exchange effects, called magnetization transfer (MT) effects, which can mask the CEST contrast of interest. We show here that the saturation of these macromolecular pools simultaneously at two distinct frequencies can level out the asymmetric MT effects, thus allowing one to isolate the CEST effects in vivo. For the first time, clean CEST contrast for glycosaminoglycans (gagCEST) in cartilage in the human knee joint is presented. In addition, the method allows one to clearly demarcate glycosaminoglycan measurements from cartilage and synovial fluid regions. This uniform-MT CEST methodology has wide applicability in in vivo molecular imaging (such as brain, skeletal muscle, etc).

Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST), arising from mobile groups, and magnetization transfer (MT) contrast arising from immobile protons, have enjoyed wide popularity recently in MRI applications. It is often difficult to separate genuine CEST signatures from MT effects, which are asymmetric with respect to the water resonance. A two-pool model for magnetization transfer (MT) is established based on Provotorov's theory of saturation, and then extended to the situation of simultaneous two-frequency rf irradiation. Numerical simulations and experimental results demonstrate that two-frequency rf irradiation can flatten out MT asymmetry when both frequency components lie within the spectrum of an MT pool. Based on this result, we propose a strategy to isolate chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) contrast from MT asymmetry contrast by using the two-frequency rf irradiation technique.

The theoretical basis of two-frequency saturation is given here in the framework of Provotorov theory. The parameters influencing the saturation efficiency are discussed and studied experimentally using a liquid-crystalline test system. It is shown that double-frequency irradiation can be extremely efficient when the irradiation frequencies are placed at opposite sides of the characteristic frequency of the spin system, and that the frequency separation in the double-frequency irradiation can be varied over a large range. Provotorov theory is also shown to provide good insights into the experimental findings, which would otherwise be difficult to obtain from simulations

We present experimental NMR demonstration of a scheme of reversible projective measurement, which allows extracting information on outcomes and probabilities of a projective measurement in a non-destructive way, with a minimal net effect on the quantum state of an ensemble. The scheme uses reversible dynamics and weak measurement of the intermediate state. The experimental system is an ensemble of (133)Cs (S = 7/2) nuclei in a liquid-crystalline matrix.

The loss of proteoglycans (PG) in the articular cartilage is an early signature of osteoarthritis (OA). The ensuing changes in the fixed charge density in the cartilage can be directly linked to sodium concentration via charge balance. Sodium ions in the knee joint appear in two pools: in the synovial fluids or joint effusion where the ions are in free motion and bound within the cartilage tissue where the Na(+) ions have a restricted motion. The ions in these two compartments have therefore different T and T relaxation times. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of a fluid-suppressed 3D ultrashort TE radial sodium sequence by implementing an inversion recovery (IR) preparation of the magnetization at 7T. This method could allow a more accurate and more sensitive quantification of loss of PG in patients with OA. It is shown that adiabatic pulses offer significantly improved performance in terms of robustness to B and B inhomogeneities when compared to the hard pulse sequence. Power deposition considerations further pose a limit to the RF inversion power, and we demonstrate in simulations and experiments how a practical compromise can be struck between clean suppression of fluid signals and power deposition levels. Two IR sequences with different types of inversion pulses (a rectangular pulse and an adiabatic pulse) were tested on a liquid phantom, ex vivo on a human knee cadaver and then in vivo on five healthy volunteers, with a (Nyquist) resolution of approximately 3.6 mm and a signal-to-noise ratio of approximately 30 in cartilage without IR and approximately 20 with IR. Due to specific absorption rate limitations, the total acquisition time was approximately 17 min for the 3D radial sequence without inversion or with the rectangular IR, and 24:30 min for the adiabatic IR sequence. It is shown that the adiabatic IR sequence generates a more uniform fluid suppression over the whole sample than the rectangular IR sequence