Using NORDIC with 23Na MRI to study dynamic changes in tissue sodium concentration

Motivation: To perform 23Na MRI to study dynamic studies of changes in tissue sodium concentration in-vivo. Goal(s): To demonstrate the application of NOise Reduction with DIstribution Corrected (NORDIC) PCA denoising to 23Na MRI data. Approach: Dynamic timeseries of 23Na GRE data and NORDIC denoising to validate measurement of a known change in sodium concentration in a phantom, and dynamic changes in calf muscle in response to exercise. Results: NORDIC PCA denoising allows detection of the temporal change in sodium in a phantom with good spatial resolution. This is applied to study the dynamics of sodium changes in muscle in response to exercise. Impact: NOise Reduction with DIstribution Corrected (NORDIC) PCA denoising provides the potential to improve low SNR 23Na MRI measures to study dynamic changes in sodium on a spatially resolved level. Here, applied to study 23Na changes in calf muscle on exercise.