BACKGROUND

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are used as tracers without ionizing radiation in vascular imaging, molecular imaging, and neuroimaging. The relaxation mechanisms of magnetization in response to excitation magnetic fields are important features of MNPs. The basic relaxation mechanisms include internal rotation (Néel relaxation) and external physical rotation (Brownian relaxation). Accurate measurement of these relaxation times may provide high sensitivity for predicting MNP types and viscosity-based hydrodynamic states. It is challenging to separately measure the Néel and Brownian relaxation components using sinusoidal excitation in conventional MPI.

PURPOSE

We developed a multi-exponential relaxation spectral analysis method to separately measure the Néel and Brownian relaxation times in the magnetization recovery process in pulsed vascular MPI.

METHODS

Synomag-D samples with different viscosities were excited using pulsed excitation in a trapezoidal-waveform relaxometer. The samples were excited at different field amplitudes ranging from 0.5 to 10 mT at intervals of 0.5 mT. The inverse Laplace transform-based spectral analysis of the relaxation-induced decay signal in the field-flat phase was performed by using PDCO, a primal-dual interior method for convex objectives. Néel and Brownian relaxation peaks were elucidated and measured on samples with various glycerol and gelatin concentrations. The sensitivity of viscosity prediction of the decoupled relaxation times was evaluated. A digital vascular phantom was designed to mimic a plaque with viscous MNPs and a catheter with immobilized MNPs. Spectral imaging of the digital vascular phantom was simulated by combining a field-free point with homogeneous pulsed excitation. The relationship between the Brownian relaxation time from different tissues and the number of periods for signal averages was evaluated for a scan time estimation in the simulation.

RESULTS

The relaxation spectra of synomag-D samples with different viscosity levels exhibited two relaxation time peaks. The Brownian relaxation time had a positive linear relationship with the viscosity in the range 0.9 to 3.2 mPa · s. When the viscosity was >3.2 mPa · s, the Brownian relaxation time saturated and did not change with increasing viscosity. The Néel relaxation time decreased slightly with an increase in the viscosity. The Néel relaxation time exhibited a similar saturation effect when the viscosity level was >3.2 mPa · s for all field amplitudes. The sensitivity of the Brownian relaxation time increased with the field amplitude and was maximized at approximately 4.5 mT. The plaque and catheter regions were differentiated from the vessel region in the simulated Brownian relaxation time map. The simulation results show that the Néel relaxation time was 8.33±0.09 μs in the plaque region, 8.30±0.08 μs in the catheter region, and 8.46±0.11 μs in the vessel region. The Brownian relaxation time was 36.60±2.31 μs in the plaque region, 30.17±1.24 μs in the catheter region, and 31.21±1.53 μs in the vessel region. If we used 20 excitation periods for image acquisition in the simulation, the total scan time of the digital phantom was approximately 100 s.

CONCLUSION

Quantitative assessment of the Néel and Brownian relaxation times through inverse Laplace transform-based spectral analysis in pulsed excitation, highlighting their potential for use in multi-contrast vascular MPI.