Quantification of superparamagnetic iron oxide with large dynamic range using TurboSPI.

This work proposes the use of TurboSPI, a multi-echo single point imaging sequence, for the quantification of labeled cells containing moderate to high concentrations of iron oxide contrast agent. At each k-space location, TurboSPI acquires several hundred time points during a spin echo, permitting reliable relaxation rate mapping of large-R(2)(∗) materials. An automatic calibration routine optimizes image quality by promoting coherent alignment of spin and stimulated echoes throughout the multi-echo train, and this calibration is sufficiently robust for in vivo applications. In vitro relaxation rate measurements of SPIO-loaded cervical cancer cells exhibit behavior consistent with theoretical predictions of the static dephasing regime in the spin echo case; the relaxivity measured with TurboSPI was 10.47±2.3 s(-1)/mG, comparable to the theoretical value of 10.78 s(-1)/mG. Similar measurements of micron-sized iron oxide particles (0.96 μm and 1.63 μm diameter) show a reduced relaxivity of 8.06±0.68 s(-1)/mG and 7.13±0.31 s(-1)/mG respectively, indicating that the static dephasing criterion was not met. Nonetheless, accurate quantification of such particles is demonstrated up to R(2)(∗)=900 s(-1), with a potentially higher upper limit for loaded cells having a more favorable R(2)('):R(2) ratio. Based on the cells used in this study, reliable quantification of cells loaded with 10 pg of iron per cell should be possible up to a density of 27 million cells/mL. Such quantification will be of crucial importance to the development of longitudinal monitoring for cellular therapy and other procedures using iron-labeled cells.