Quantification of renal oxygenation with field-insensitive T2-preparation and fast acquisition

Motivation: T2-based method was recently extended to measure renal oxygen metabolism. However, MLEV T2-preparation can be less robust due to field inhomogeneity in abdomen. Goal(s): The goal is to propose a field-insensitive method for renal oxygenation quantification. Approach: An adiabetic T2-preparation (BIR-n) method was proposed. Simulation and phantom studies was performed to demonstrate the field-insensitivity. In-vivo experiements were conducted to examine the test-retest reproducibility. Results: A robust T2 quantification at different B0 and B1 offsets were demonstrated. In-vivo experiments showed a good test-retest reproducibility. Oxygenation was also found to be consistent between left and right renal veins, and showed significant correlation with blood flow. Impact: The proposed method has the potential to provide accurate and stable estimation of renal oxygen extraction and metabolism in a number of renal diseases.