A NOVEL EDITING TECHNIQUE FOR F-19 MRI - MOLECULE-SPECIFIC IMAGING

A novel technique is proposed to facilitate the selective imaging of specific molecules from a mixture. The application of the technique presented here demonstrates the ability to selectively produce 19F MR images of either trifluoroacetic acid or the perfluorocarbon emulsion Oxypherol-ET (perfluorotributylamine), when both molecules are present simultaneously. Selective detection is based on the presence of homonuclear J-modulation in one molecule and differential spin-spin relaxation time (T2). Perfluorotributylamine, an A3B2 system, is subject to homonuclear J-modulation, which produces a null signal from the antiphase components of the triplet (A3) when an echo time (TE) = 1 2J is used in a spin-echo image. At this echo time the second molecule, in this example trifluoroacetic acid, a non-coupled spin system, is selectively imaged. At longer echo times, e.g., TE = 1 J there is substantial recovery of the J-modulated signal, which may be solely observed due to T2 decay of the trifluoroacetic acid signal. The method is demonstrated both using phantoms and in vivo. © 1990.