Motion-robust accelerated in vivo CEST MRI of perirenal fat with keyhole k-space acquisition

Motivation: Quantifying creatine metabolism in perirenal fat offers insights into adipose tissue's role in energy regulation and metabolic disorders, but respiratory motion and organ displacement make reliable imaging challenging. Goal(s): To develop a motion-robust method for accelerated CEST MRI quantification of creatine in perirenal fat. Approach: Integrated three techniques: Savitzky-Golay filtering for spectral smoothing, Low-Rank Approximation of Z-spectra (LRAZ) for motion correction, and keyhole k-space reconstruction for faster acquisition. Results: The method achieved 4 times reduction in scan time while maintaining measurement accuracy, with no significant differences (p>0.05) in CrCEST effects compared to conventional full k-space acquisition. Impact: This novel integration of motion correction techniques with accelerated acquisition enables motion-robust in vivo CrCEST imaging of perirenal fat, potentially advancing our understanding of adipose tissue metabolism in obesity-related disorders while significantly reducing patient scan times.