Objectives: The goal of this study was to quantify CEST related parameters such as chemical exchange rate and fractional concentration of exchanging protons at a clinical 3T scanner. For this purpose, two CEST quantification approaches-the AREX metric (for 'apparent exchange dependent relaxation'), and the AREX-based Ω-plot method were used. In addition, two different pulsed RF irradiation schemes, using Gaussian-shaped and spin-lock pulses, were compared.
Materials And Methods: Numerical simulations as well as MRI measurements in phantoms were performed. For simulations, the Bloch-McConnell equations were solved using a two-pool exchange model. MR experiments were performed on a clinical 3T MRI scanner using a cylindrical phantom filled with creatine solution at different pH values and different concentrations.
Results: The validity of the Ω-plot method and the AREX approach using spin-lock preparation for determination of the quantitative CEST parameters was demonstrated. Especially promising results were achieved for the Ω-plot method when the spin-lock preparation was employed.
Conclusion: Pulsed CEST at 3T could be used to quantify parameters such as exchange rate constants and concentrations of protons exchanging with free water. In the future this technique might be used to estimate the exchange rates and concentrations of biochemical substances in human tissues in vivo.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10334-017-0625-0 | DOI Listing |
Eval Rev
January 2025
Global Development Network, Lanzhou University and Director of Evaluation, New Delhi, India.
Official development agencies are increasingly supporting civil society lobby and advocacy (L&A) to address poverty and human rights. However, there are challenges in evaluating L&A. As programme objectives are often to change policies or practices in a single institution like a Government Ministry, L&A programmes are often not amenable to large-n impact evaluation methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSleep
January 2025
Department of Neurology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO USA.
Study Objectives: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) may improve sleep dysfunction, a common non-motor symptom of Parkinson disease (PD). Improvement in motor symptoms correlates with DBS-suppressed local field potential (LFP) activity, particularly in the beta frequency (13 - 30 Hz). Although well-characterized in the short term, little is known about the innate progression of these oscillations across the sleep-wake cycle.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
January 2025
Linguistics and English as a Second Language, Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Objectives: The complex life experience of speaking two or more languages has been suggested to preserve cognition in older adulthood. This study aimed to investigate this further by examining the relationship between multilingual experience variables and cognitive functioning in a large cohort of older adults in the diversely multilingual north of the Netherlands.
Method: 11,332 older individuals participating in the Lifelines Cohort Study completed a language experience questionnaire.
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci
January 2025
Discipline of Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Background: It has been suggested that dog walking may protect against falls and mobility problems in later life, but little work to date has examined this.The aim of this study was to assess if regular dog walking was associated with reduced likelihood of falls, fear of falling and mobility problems in a large cohort of community-dwelling older people.
Methods: Participants ≥60 years at Wave 5 of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing were included.
MAGMA
January 2025
Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CRMBM, Marseille, France.
Objective: Segmentation of individual thigh muscles in MRI images is essential for monitoring neuromuscular diseases and quantifying relevant biomarkers such as fat fraction (FF). Deep learning approaches such as U-Net have demonstrated effectiveness in this field. However, the impact of reducing neural network complexity remains unexplored in the FF quantification in individual muscles.
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