Low duty-cycle pulsed irradiation reduces magnetization transfer and increases the inhomogeneous magnetization transfer effect

International audienceIntense off-resonant RF irradiation can lead to saturation of the macromolecular pool magnetization and enhance bound pool dipolar order responsible for the inhomogeneous magnetization transfer (ihMT) effect, but the intensity of RF power in human imaging studies is limited by safety constraints on RF heat- ing. High RF intensities can still be achieved if applied in short pulses with low duty-cycle. Here we inves- tigate the benefits of low duty-cycle irradiation for MT and ihMT studies with both theoretical and experimental methods.Solutions for pulsed irradiation of a two-pool model including dipolar order effects were implemented. Experiments were conducted at 3 T in the brain and through the calf of healthy human subjects. 2D echo planar images were acquired following a preparation of RF irradiation with a 2 s train of 5 ms pulses repeated from between 10 to 100 ms for duty-cycles (DCs) of 50% to 5%, and at varying offset frequencies, and time averaged RF powers. MT and ihMT data were measured in regions of interest within gray mat- ter, white matter and muscle, and fit to the model.RF irradiation effects on signal intensity were reduced at 5% relative to 50% DCs. This reduced RF effect was much larger for single than dual frequency irradiation. 5% DC irradiation reduced single and dual fre- quency MT ratios but increased ihMT ratios up to 3 fold in brain tissues. Muscle ihMT increased by an even larger factor, depending on the frequency and applied power. The model predicted these changes with duty-cycle. The model fit the data well and constrained model parameters.Low duty-cycle pulsed irradiation reduces MT effects and markedly increases dipolar order effects. This approach is an attractive method to enhance ihMT signal-to-noise ratio and demonstrates a measurable ihMT effect in muscle tissue at 3 T under acceptable specific absorption rates. The effects of duty-cycle changes demonstrated in a separate MT/ihMT preparation provide a route for new applications in magnetization-prepared MRI sequences

Validating the sensitivity of inhomogeneous magnetization transfer (ihMT) MRI to myelin with fluorescence microscopy

International audienceInhomogeneous Magnetization Transfer (ihMT) is a development from the MT MRI technique. IhMT can be considered as a dipolar order relaxation time (T1D) weighted imaging modality whose signal has shown an enhanced selectivity for myelin-rich structures. However, a formal validation of the ihMT sensitivity relative to a gold standard myelin density measurement has not yet been reported. To address this need, we compared ihMT MRI with green fluorescence protein (GFP) microscopy, in a study performed on genetically-modified plp-GFP mice, considered as a reference technique for myelin-content assessment. Various ihMT protocols consisting of variable T1D-filtering and radiofrequency power temporal distributions, were used for comparison with fluores- cence microscopy. Strong and significant linear relationships (r2 (0.87–0.96), p < 0.0001) were found between GFP and ihMT ratio signals across brain regions for all tested protocol variants. Conventional MT ratios showed weaker correlations (r2 (0.24–0.78), p 0.02) and a much larger signal fraction unrelated to myelin, hence corresponding to a much lower specificity for myelin. T1D-filtering reduced the ihMT signal fraction not attributed to myelin by almost twofold relative to zero filtering suggesting that at least half of the unrelated signal has a substantially shorter T1D than myelin. Overall, these results strongly support the sensitivity of ihMT to myelin conte

Evaluation of the Sensitivity of Inhomogeneous Magnetization Transfer (ihMT) MRI for Multiple Sclerosis

International audienceBACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Inhomogeneous magnetization transfer is a new endogenous MR imaging contrast mechanism that has demonstrated high specificity for myelin. Here, we tested the hypothesis that inhomogeneous magnetization transfer is sensitive to pathology in a population of patients with relapsing-remitting MS in a way that both differs from and complements conventional magnetization transfer.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-five patients with relapsing-remitting MS and 20 healthy volunteers were enrolled in a prospective MR imaging research study, whose protocol included anatomic imaging, standard magnetization transfer, and inhomogeneous magneti- zation transfer imaging. Magnetization transfer and inhomogeneous magnetization transfer ratios measured in normal-appearing brain tissue and in MS lesions of patients were compared with values measured in control subjects. The potential association of inhomogeneous magnetization transfer ratio variations with the clinical scores (Expanded Disability Status Scale) of patients was further evaluated.RESULTS: The magnetization transfer ratio and inhomogeneous magnetization transfer ratio measured in the thalami and frontal, occipital, and temporal WM of patients with MS were lower compared with those of controls (P < .05). The mean inhomogeneous magnetization transfer ratio measured in lesions was lower than that in normal-appearing WM (P< .05). Significant (P< .05) negative correlations were found between the clinical scores and inhomogeneous magnetization transfer ratio measured in normal-appearing WM structures. Weaker nonsignificant correlation trends were found for the magnetization transfer ratio.CONCLUSIONS: The sensitivity of the inhomogeneous magnetization transfer technique for MS was highlighted by the reduction in the inhomogeneous magnetization transfer ratio in MS lesions and in normal-appearing WM of patients compared with controls. Stronger correlations with the Expanded Disability Status Scale score were obtained with the inhomogeneous magnetization transfer ratio com- pared with the standard magnetization transfer ratio, which may be explained by the higher specificity of inhomogeneous magnetization transfer for myelin