Accurate T2* Quantification with Susceptibility Correction at 3.0 T

Purpose: Quantitative imaging by means of T2*-relaxometry is important in many high field MRI applications such as in BOLD contrast studies for oxygen mapping as well as for the determination of iron content in brain and liver. Also the sensitive detection of iron oxide particle-based contrast agents is becoming a growing application, especially within the scope of molecular imaging MR. Methods: T2*-relaxometry for quantitative MR imaging at 3T is strongly hampered by large-scale field inhomogeneities ΔB0 (susceptibility), which lead to signal losses and an overestimation of the relaxation rate R2*. To derive an…