Grading and assessment of intra-tumor heterogeneity of gliomas using 3D CEST imaging with compressed sensing and sensitivity encoding

Glioma grading using chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging is often performed in a single cross-section. However, CEST imaging of multiple cross-sections is desirable for intra-tumor heterogeneity. Compressed sensing and sensitivity encoding (CS-SENSE) was applied to CEST imaging to obtain multi-slice CEST imaging in a clinically appropriate scan time. The diagnostic performance of three-dimensional (3D) CEST imaging was comparable to that of a two-dimensional CEST imaging. The evaluation of the entire tumors by multi-slice CEST imaging was important in the gliomas' grading because the signal intensities differed among the tumor slices.