Quantitative 19F imaging using inductively coupled reference signal injection.

This report describes recent efforts on our continuous development of a synthetic signal injection method for quantification of metabolite content in MR spectroscopy and MRI. Previous work showed that conversion of spectral peaks to quantitative units of metabolite content could be achieved with a calibrated synthetic free induction decay generated by an inductively coupled injection coil. This work demonstrates that calibrated synthetic voxels, injected in the same manner, can be used to quantify metabolite content in real (19)F image voxels. Images of vials containing different concentrations of sodium fluoride (NaF) were converted to units of moles by reference to precalibrated synthetically injected voxels. Additional images of vials containing variable sodium chloride (NaCl) demonstrate that the quantification process is robust and immune to changes in coil loading conditions. (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.