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In vivo sodium MR imaging of the abdomen at 3T

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Abstract

Purpose

Transmembrane sodium (23Na) gradient is critical for cell survival and viability and a target for the development of anti-cancer drugs and treatment as it serves as a signal transducer. The ability to integrate abdominal 23Na MRI in clinical settings would be useful to non-invasively detect and diagnose a number of diseases in various organ systems. Our goal in this work was to enhance the quality of 23Na MRI of the abdomen using a 3-Tesla MR scanner and a novel 8-channel phased-array dual-tuned 23Na and 1H transmit (Tx)/receive (Rx) coil specially designed to image a large abdomen region with relatively high SNR.

Methods

A modified GRE imaging sequence was optimized for 23Na MRI to obtain the best possible combination of SNR, spatial resolution, and scan time in phantoms as well as volunteers. Tissue sodium concentration (TSC) of the whole abdomen was calculated from the inhomogeneity-corrected 23Na MRI for absolute quantification. In addition, in vivo reproducibility and reliability of TSC measurements from 23Na MRI was evaluated in normal volunteers.

Results

23Na axial images of the entire abdomen with a high spatial resolution (0.3 cm) and SNR (~20) in 15 min using the novel 8-channel dual-tuned 23Na and 1H transmit/receive coil were obtained. Quantitative analysis of the sodium images estimated a mean TSC of the liver to be 20.13 mM in healthy volunteers.

Conclusion

Our results have shown that it is feasible to obtain high-resolution 23Na images using a multi-channel surface coil with good SNR in clinically acceptable scan times in clinical practice for various body applications.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant numbers CA110107 and EB005964. The authors thank Helmut Stark, PhD, (MRI Coils Research, Stark Contrast, Erlangen, Germany) for his assistance with coil design and manufacturing, the volunteers for MRI scans, Ms. S. Dharamadhikari and Ms. B. George for technical assistance, and Dr. Andriy Babsky and Dr. Andrew A Smith (University of Mississippi Medical Centre, Jackson, MS) for their valuable discussion and editorial comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, 13400 E. Shea Blvd., Scottsdale, AZ, 85259, USA

    Judy R. James & Anshuman Panda

  2. Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Judy R. James, Anshuman Panda, Chen Lin, Ulrike Dydak & Navin Bansal

  3. School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Judy R. James, Anshuman Panda & Ulrike Dydak

  4. Siemens Medical Solutions, MR R&D, Cary, NC, USA

    Brian M. Dale

Authors
  1. Judy R. James
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  2. Anshuman Panda
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  4. Ulrike Dydak
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  6. Navin Bansal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Judy R. James.

Additional information

Judy R. James, Anshuman Panda, and Navin Bansal are formerly with Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine and School of Health Sciences, Purdue University.

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James, J.R., Panda, A., Lin, C. et al. In vivo sodium MR imaging of the abdomen at 3T. Abdom Imaging 40, 2272–2280 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-015-0428-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-015-0428-6

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