T1-compesated quantification of NOE and amide for brain tumor patients using a QUEST-like 10-point fitting

CEST MRI is a promising molecular imaging technique, but the in vivo quantification inherently faces challenges because of multiple types of signal contaminations. Herein we introduced a QUEST-like 10-point fitting method for simultaneous NOE and amide quantification at 3T with reduced T1 contamination. The quantification method was evaluated by simulations and phantom experiments. Furthermore, for glioblastoma patients, the highlighted regions on fitted amide images are consistent with the hyperintensities on Gd-T1W maps, which is a smaller enhanced area than those on conventional APTw images. The initial results on tumor patients indicate its potential for clinical use.