title: MR-based protein imaging of the human brain by means of dualCEST creator: Breitling, Johannes Sebastian subject: ddc-530 subject: 530 Physics subject: ddc-600 subject: 600 Technology (Applied sciences) description: Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) is an emerging magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique enabling indirect detection of low-concentration cellular compounds in living tissue by their magnetization transfer with water. In particular, protein-attributed CEST signals have been shown to provide valuable diagnostic information for various diseases. While conventional CEST approaches suffer from confounding signals from metabolites and macromolecules, the novel dual-frequency irradiation CEST (dualCEST) technique enables increased protein specificity by selectively detecting the intramolecular spin-diffusion. However, application of this technique has so far been limited to spectroscopic investigations of model solutions at ultrahigh magnetic field strengths. In this thesis, dualCEST was translated to a clinical whole-body MR scanner, enabling protein imaging of the human brain. To this end, several methodological developments were implemented and optimized: (i) improved dual-frequency pulses for signal preparation, (ii) a fast and robust volumetric image readout, (iii) a weighted acquisition scheme, and (iv) an adaptive denoising technique. The resulting improvements are not limited to dualCEST but are relevant for the research field of CEST-MRI in general. Extensive measurements of biochemical model solutions and volunteers demonstrated the protein specificity and reproducibility of dualCEST-MRI. The clinical applicability was verified in pilot studies with tumor and Alzheimer’s patients. date: 2020 type: Dissertation type: info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis type: NonPeerReviewed format: application/pdf identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/28481/1/Diss%20--%20Breitling%2C%20J%20-%202020%20-%20MR-based%20protein%20imaging%20of%20the%20human%20brain%20by%20means%20of%20dualCEST.pdf identifier: DOI:10.11588/heidok.00028481 identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-heidok-284811 identifier: Breitling, Johannes Sebastian (2020) MR-based protein imaging of the human brain by means of dualCEST. [Dissertation] relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/28481/ rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess rights: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/help/license_urhg.html language: eng