Feasibility and Improved Specificity of Brain Lipid Imaging at 7 Tesla using Transient Nuclear Overhauser Effect (tNOE)

Brain lipid imaging using steady-state nuclear Overhauser effect (ssNOE), though a traditionally popular approach, suffers from multiple confounding non-NOE specific sources, including direct saturation, magnetization transfer (MT), and relevant chemical exchange species. B0, B1+- dependent data are also needed to correct for the effect of (B0, B1+)- inhomogeneities¸ leading to other issues such as patient tolerability due to substantially increased scan time. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of brain lipid mapping using an easily implementable transient NOE (tNOE) approach for the first time. Advantages include improved specificity, faster scan time and robust quantification with minimal confounding contributions.