Quantifying Free Water Content with the Look-Locker Method in MRI

Motivation: Accurate free water fraction quantification is a promising approach for advancing diagnostics and treatment monitoring across diseases, with a need for improved methods to enhance tumor characterization. Goal(s): To develop and validate a method for quantifying water using the Look-Locker technique (qWaLL), aimed at accurately measuring free water fraction with the Look-Locker sequence. Approach: We employ a qWaLL method to correct transmitting and receiving coil inhomogeneities, enabling the robust generation of highly accurate water fraction maps. Results: Our qWaLL method yielded water fraction maps with improved accuracy, demonstrating significantly reduced deviations from reference values, particularly enhancing diagnostic potential in clinical applications. Impact: This study demonstrates a highly accurate, optimized method for quantifying water fraction using the Look-Locker sequence (qWaLL), improving artifact removal and signal homogeneity. It offers significant potential for enhancing diagnostic precision in tumor tissue characterization and clinical applications.