Feasibility of transient nuclear Overhauser effect imaging in brain at 7 T

The nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) quantification from the steady-state NOE imaging suffers from multiple confounding non-NOE-specific sources, including direct saturation, magnetization transfer, and relevant chemical exchange species, and is affected by B₀ and B₁ ⁺ inhomogeneities. The B₀ -dependent and B₁ ⁺ -dependent data needed for deconvolving these confounding effects would increase the scan time substantially, leading to other issues such as patient tolerability. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of brain lipid mapping using an easily implementable transient NOE (tNOE) approach.

This 7T study used a frequency-selective inversion pulse at a range of frequency offsets between 1.0 and 5.0 parts per million (ppm) and -5.0 and -1.0 ppm relative to bulk water peak. This was followed by a fixed/variable mixing time and then a single-shot 2D turbo FLASH readout. The feasibility of tNOE measurements is demonstrated on bovine serum albumin phantoms and healthy human brains.

The tNOE measurements from bovine serum albumin phantoms were found to be independent of physiological pH variations. Both bovine serum albumin phantoms and human brains showed broad tNOE contributions centered at approximately -3.5 ppm relative to water peak, with presumably aliphatic moieties in lipids and proteins being the dominant contributors. Less prominent tNOE contributions of approximately +2.5 ppm relative to water, presumably from aromatic moieties, were also detected. These aromatic signals were free from any CEST signals.

In this study, we have demonstrated the feasibility of tNOE in human brain at 7 T. This method is more scan-time efficient than steady-state NOE and provides NOE measurement with minimal confounders.