Water Specific Magnetization Transfer in Skeletal Muscle Using MT-IDEAL

Robert L. Janiczek¹, ², Christopher D.J. Sinclair², Giulio Gambarota³, Xavier Golay², Rexford D. Newbould⁴, John S. Thornton²

A reduced magnetization transfer (MT) effect has been observed in muscles affected by neuromuscular diseases due to a combination of lipid infiltration, edema, and/or macromolecular differences relative to healthy muscle. Lipid infiltration can therefore mask MT changes due edema and biologically important macromolecular abnormalities. This work presents a technique, MT-IDEAL, that combines a chemical-species separation imaging technique, IDEAL, with an MT imaging acquisition. MT-IDEAL uses multiple echoes to increase SNR as well as produce fat fraction, T₂^*, and water-isolated MTR maps with no scan time penalty.