title: Blood oxygen saturation assessment in vivo using T2* estimation.
abstract: The feasibility of noninvasively assessing hemoglobin oxygen saturation of deep blood vessels in vivo by measuring blood T2* is investigated. Techniques for blood T2* measurements in major arteries and veins in the presence of pulsatile blood flow are presented and validated using a flow phantom. Images of multiple TEs were collected in a paired fashion. Cardiac triggering was used to eliminate image artifacts caused by pulsatile arterial blood flow. Using these techniques, it was found that the T2* of arterial blood (199 +/- 8 ms) is significantly greater than that of venous blood (108 +/- 6 ms) in 10 volunteers, consistent with the fact that the oxygen saturation level of arterial blood is much larger than that of venous blood. Various oxygen saturation levels were created in vivo in a pig and the blood T2* was shown to increase with oxygen saturation levels over a wide range. Preliminary results of this study indicate that it is feasible to assess local oxygen saturation by measuring blood T2* using the proposed techniques.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Waight
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D016477:Artifacts; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood*; D010108:Oxyhemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011673:Pulsatile Flow; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D010108:Oxyhemoglobins; D010100:Oxygen