Novel 3D Quantitative Magnetization Transfer Imaging of The Whole Knee Cartilage

We propose to characterize cartilage extracellular matrix of the whole knee using a novel quantitative magnetization transfer (MT) imaging technique. This new technique achieves accurate T1 and MT quantification by using a new sequence incorporating off-resonance RF pulses that create two simultaneous effects: 1) Bloch-Siegert phase shift to measure and correct for B1+ inhomogeneity and 2) direct saturation of macromolecules to model MT. This new method, termed BTS (Bloch-Siegert and magnetization Transfer Simultaneously), is presented and validated in both phantom and in-vivo knee imaging experiments.