Exchange-influenced T2rho contrast in human brain images measured with adiabatic radio frequency pulses.

Transverse relaxation in the rotating frame (T(2rho)) is the dominant relaxation mechanism during an adiabatic Carr-Purcell (CP) spin-echo pulse sequence when no delays are used between pulses in the CP train. The exchange-induced and dipolar interaction contributions (T(2rho,ex) and T(2rho,dd)) depend on the modulation functions of the adiabatic pulses used. In this work adiabatic pulses having different modulation functions were utilized to generate T(2rho) contrast in images of the human occipital lobe at magnetic field of 4 T. T(2rho) time constants were measured using an adiabatic CP pulse sequence followed by an imaging readout. For these measurements, adiabatic full passage pulses of the hyperbolic secant HSn (n = 1 or 4) family having significantly different amplitude-and frequency-modulation functions were used with no time delays between pulses. A dynamic averaging (DA) mechanism (e.g., chemical exchange and diffusion in the locally different magnetic susceptibilities) alone was insufficient to fully describe differences in brain tissue water proton T(2rho) time constants. Measurements of the apparent relaxation time constants (T(2) (dagger)) of brain tissue water as a function of the time between centers of pulses (tau(cp)) at 4 and 7 T permitted separation of the DA contribution from that of dipolar relaxation. The methods presented assess T(2rho) relaxation influenced by DA in tissue and provide a means to generate T(2rho) contrast in MRI. Copyright 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.