Determination of oxygen r1 at 3 Tesla using samples with a concentration range of dissolved oxygen

Objective To investigate the sensitivity of modified Look–Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) to measure changes in dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in water samples and to calculate sequence-specific relaxivity (r1m) and limit of detection (LOD). Materials and methods Ten water samples with a range of DO concentrations were scanned at 3 T using two variations of MOLLI schemes. Using linear regression the r1 of DO was estimated from the measured DO concentrations and T1 relaxation rates (R1). The results were combined with previously reported values on in vivo stability measures of the MOLLI sequences and used to estimate a LOD. Results DO concentrations ranged from 0.5 to 21.6 mg L−1. A linear correlation between DO and R1 was obtained with both MOLLI sequences, with an average correlation coefficient (R2) 0.9 and an average estimated r1 (r^1) of 4.45 × 10−3 s−1 mg−1 L. Estimated LOD was ≈ 10 mg L−1. Conclusion MOLLI T1-mapping sequences may be used for detecting dissolved oxygen in vivo at 3 T with an r^1 in the range 4.18–4.8 × 10−3 s−1 mg−1 L and a corresponding LOD for dissolved oxygen of approximately 10 mg L−1. MOLLI-based T1 mapping may be a useful non-invasive tool for quantification of in vivo changes of DO concentration during oxygen challenges