NEWS

THE SUCCESS AND ACTIVITIES OF TURKISH SCIENTISTS AT THE 14TH ISMRM MEETING IN SEATTLE 04/07/2006

International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 14th Scientific Meeting and Exhibition was held at Seattle, Washington, USA on May 6-12th, 2006. There were at least 65 Turkish MR researchers attending the ISMRM 2006. Turkish MR researchers presented a variety of studies at the conference, including high field applications, coil development, parallel imaging, clinical studies using fMRI, MR spectroscopic, diffusion, and perfusion imaging, MR angiography, and real time image guided procedures to name a few. Three studies first or co-authored by Turkish MR scientists were also among the winners of the poster awards in the engineering, diffusion and functional categories. The studies that received these poster awards were, 1) Engineering, 1st Place 2573. Head RF Coil Design with Surface Current Density Optimization for SENSE Imaging L Tugan Muftuler1, Gang Chen1, Orhan Nalcioglu1 1University of California, Irvine, California, USA 2) Diffusion, 1st Place 1078. Combined DTI Fiber Tracking and Histological 3D Atlas Mapping of Sensorimotor, Associative and Limbic Cortico – Striatal Circuits Saâd Jbabdi1, Eric Bardinet2, Habib Benali1, Didier Dormont2, Kamil Ugurbil3, Jérôme Yelnik4, Stéphane Lehéricy1,3 1Inserm/UPMC, Paris, France, 2CNRS, Paris, France, 3University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA,4Inserm, Paris, France 3) Functional, 3rd Place 1158. Imaging RCBF Changes in Response to Insulin-Induced Hypoglycemia at 3T Using Three-Coil CASL Edward J. Auerbach1, Jyothi P. Rao1, Kamil Ugurbil1, Elizabeth R. Seaquist1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. We have composed a list of the Turkish MR researchers that attended ISMRM 2006 along with their abstract numbers, study topics or titles, and synopsis. We could not have uploaded the full abstracts for these studies to the Turkmrcilari website due to the size limitations, but if you would like to have any of the full abstracts please contact me at esin@mrsc.ucsf.edu. We hope that this review will enhance our understanding of the scope of studies that are conducted by the Turkish MR scientific community, and possibly help start new collaborations. Thank you. Sincerely, Esin Ozturk Isik Turkish MR Researchers that Attended ISMRM 2006 1. Agildere, Muhtesem 2. Akbari, Haydar 3. Akbudak, Erbil, 1443,2751 Diffusion Tensor Tracking for Identification of Parallel Hippocampo-Fusiform and Amygdalo-Fusiform Pathways in vivo, Freehand Performance of Interventions with Manipulator-Driven Real-Time Update of the Imaging Plane 4. Akca, Imran, 2043 Measuring Local RF Heating in MRI 5. Akduman, Isin, 395 Quantitative MRI/MRS of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) 6. Akgun, Can, 421, 2619,3535 High-Field Transmission Line Arrays for Transmit and Receive, Microstrip TEM Coil Optimization at 7T, Impact of Coil Diameter and Number of Coil Elements on B1 Destructive Interferences with Stripline Coil Arrays at 7 Tesla 7. Aksel, Bulent, 780 Local Planar Gradients with Order-Of-Magnitude Strength and Speed Advantage 8. Aksit, Pelin, 571,140,2952,3599,3351 Angiography, Real Time Image Guided Procedures, “Shoot and Scoot” (SNS) MR Angiography, ECG Triggered MRI-Guided Navigation for Cardiac Interventions, Iterative Deconvolution-Interpolation Gridding, Tracking Planar Orientations of Active Interventional Devices for Realtime Image Guided Procedures, 32-Channel Real-Time Cardiac MRI System 9. Aksoy, Murat, 8,3197 Motion Correction, Improving Rigid Head Motion Correction Using Parallel Imaging, A Self-Navigated Spiral in & Out Pulse Sequence Design for Retrospective Motion Correction 10. Atalar, Ergin, 264,697,2043,3351,3352, Measuring Local RF Heating in MRI, A Novel Catheter Tracking Method Using Reversed Polarization, Accurate Absolute Thermal Monitoring with RF Radiometry, MRI-Guided Transvenous Pancreatic Injections, Tracking Planar Orientations of Active Interventional Devices for Realtime Image Guided Procedures 11. Ay, Hakan, 503,2677 Effects of MR Perfusion Parameters Selection on the Prediction of Tissue Infarction in Acute Human Stroke, The Composition of Acute MCA Thrombus is Heterogeneous: A Comparison of MR Susceptibility Image and CTA 12. Azeloglu, Evren,1217 Automated Adaptive Analysis of Tagged Magnetic Resonance Images of the Mouse Heart 13. Bacanli, Didem, 2043 Measuring Local RF Heating in MRI 14. Bilgin, Ali, 925,2972,3651 T2 estimation, parallel imaging, fast spin echo methods 15. Birgul, Ozlem, 331,332,2947,3382,3383,3386 Magnetic resonance-electrical impedance tomography (MREIT), Chromophore Reconstruction in Diffuse Optical Tomography 16. Cavus, Idil, 900 MR spectroscopic imaging, Extracellular GABA levels in epilepsy 17. Celik, Azim, 3415 DWI of the Spine with a Non-CPMG Single-Shot FSE 18. Celik, Haydar, 264 Inductively coupled RF (ICRF) coil tracking method 19. Celikyay, Fatih, 3415 DWI of the Spine with a Non-CPMG Single-Shot FSE 20. Cukur, Tolga, 1967 Flow-Independent Angiography of the Hand with 3D Balanced SSFP Imaging 21. Demirci, Ali 22. Duru, Firat, 2036 RF-Heating Effects on Coated Wires and Pacemaker Leads 23. Ekin, Ahmet, 2647 Automated detection and classification of hypointense regions on T2-weighted MR images 24. Ersoy, Hale, 572,1913,3638 Peripheral MRA 25. Gozubuyuk, Ark, 126 32 Channel Lattice Transmission Line Array for Parallel MRI 26. Guclu, Ceylan Celil, 526,753,2353,2370 An Integrated Signal-To-Noise Ratio Approach for Phased-Array Coil Health Check, An In-Vivo Image Intensity Correction Method for High Field Systems, Correction Accuracy in B1 Measurement for High Field Image Intensity Correction,A Novel Method of Flip Angle Mapping and Calibration 27. Guer, Okan, 1757 1H-MR Spectroscopy of the Prostate at 3.0 T with a Phase-Array Surface Coil 28. Gulsen, Gultekin, 1438,2947 Simultaneous Quantitative Flow-Measurement Using MRI and Optical Coherence DopplerTomography, Chromophore Reconstruction in Diffuse Optical Tomography 29. Gultepe, Eren, 2751 Diffusion Tensor Tracking for Identification of Parallel Hippocampo-Fusiform and Amygdalo-Fusiform Pathways in vivo 30. Gurleyik, Kilichan 31. Tatar, Idil Gunes, 1187,1190 In Vivo Risk Zone Assessment in the Rat at 1.5T Using Manganese Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MEMRI), Cardiac Function and Infarct Size Assessment in the Rat at 1.5T 32. Izbudak, Izlem, 245, 1557 Age-Dependence and Clinical Correlates of Brain Metabolism in Rett Syndrome, Diffusion Tensor Imaging Findings in Rett Syndrome Patients 33. Kanber, Baris, 401, 2265 Detection of Colorectal Liver Metastases by Diffusion-Weighted Imaging, Assessment of Colorectal Hepatic Metastases by Quantitative T2 Relaxation Time 34. Keserci, Bilgin, 198, 1415, 1428 Optimization of the Self-Reference Thermometry Using Isolated Regions for Complex Signal Estimation, An Electromagnetic Model for Cool-Tip RF Needle Artifacts in Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Feasibility of Diffusion-Weighted MR Imaging and ADC Map to Predict Necrosis of Uterine Fibroids During MR Imaging-Guided Focused Ultrasound Surgery 35. Kirbas, Cemil, 2670 Correlative Analysis of Anisotropy Diffusion Coefficient and Magnetization Transfer Ratio with Serum Antibody Brain Binding and Antiphospholipid Antibodies in Multiple Sclerosis 36. Kovanlikaya, Ilhami 37. Meral, Faik Can, 1283 Modulated Radiation Force of US as Shear Wave Source in Microscopic MRE 38. Muftuler, Lutfi Tugan, 331, 332, 2570, 2572, 2573, 2574, 3382, 3383, 3386 Design of RF Coils Optimized for SENSE Imaging, Magnetic resonance-electrical impedance tomography (MREIT), MRI Based Electrical Impedance Tomography of Malignant Tumors 39. Nalcioglu, Orhan, 32, 298, 299, 331, 332, 577, 581, 582, 935, 1030, 1438, 1503, 1581, 2080, 2570, 2572, 2573, 2574, 2654, 2878, 2889, 2901, 2947, 3123, 3382, 3383, 3386, 3475 Longitudinal Changes in Vascular Function in a Canine Aging Model Measured by Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI and the Correlation of Blood-Brain-Barrier Permeability with Beta-Amyloid Angiopathy Assessed by Immunohistochemical Staining, MR Imaging of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ, MRI Monitoring of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response in Breast Cancer, Simultaneous Quantitative Flow-Measurement Using MRI and Optical Coherence Doppler Tomography, Chromophore Reconstruction in Diffuse Optical Tomography, Magnetic resonance-electrical impedance tomography (MREIT), MRI Based Electrical Impedance Tomography of Malignant Tumors, MRI measurements of tumor-size and pharmacokinetic parameters (Ktran and kep) in breast cancer as a predictor of chemotherapy response, MR Spectroscopic Imaging of breast tumors, Voxel Based Morphometry (VBM) Protocol for Assessing Regional Brain Changes in a Canine Model of Aging, Diffusion Tensor Imaging Between Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Normal Controls Using Statistical Parametric Mapping, PET Restoration by Maximization of MRI-PET Mutual Information, MR Spectroscopic Imaging of Epilepsy, fMRI and VBM of schizophrenia patients, Design of RF Coils Optimized for SENSE Imaging, Hippocampal Atrophy in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Optimized Manual ROI Segmentation and VBM, Artificial Neuronal Network Analysis of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response, Coregistration of Contrast Enhanced MRI and Broadband Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy for Characterizing Breast Cancer, VBM and Manual Volumetric Analysis of the Cingulate Gyrus in Epileptic Patients, Comparison of Infiltrating Lobular Carcinoma with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma Based on ACR BI-RADS MRI Lexicon 40. Ocak, Iclal, 109 Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Imaging and Quantitative Analysis of Prostate Cancer at 3 Tesla 41. Neyzi, Nurunisa 42. Oksuz, Ozcan, 365 Simultaneous Projection of Multi-Branched Vessels with Their Surroundings on a Single Image from Coronary MRA 43. Oner, Ali Yusuf, 3415 DWI of the Spine with a Non-CPMG Single-Shot FSE 44. Oz, Gulin, 402, 405, 903, 3085 Localized 13C NMR Measurement of NAA and GSH Turnover in the Human Brain, Relation of Brain Glycogen Supply and Neuronal Activation, Quantitation of Cellular and Biochemical Alterations in Hereditary Ataxias by 1H MRS at 4 Tesla, Proton MRS of Bilateral Substantia Nigra in the Human Brain at 4 Tesla with Hadamard Encoding 45. Ozarslan, Evren, 713, 1028 Extension of the Diffusion Orientation Transform (DOT) to Multiexponential Signal Attenuation, From ADC to Probability Profiles: The Diffusion Orientation Transform 46. Ozcan, Alpay, 1443 Freehand Performance of Interventions with Manipulator-Driven Real-Time Update of the Imaging Plane 47. Ozdemir, Mahir Sinan, 2366 Removal of Sideband Modulations in 1H MRS Without Solvent Suppression 48. Ozer, Bulent, 1283 Modulated Radiation Force of US as Shear Wave Source in Microscopic MRE 49. Ozturk, Cengizhan, 271, 2418 Fusion of Delayed Hyperenhancement MRI with Live X-Ray Imaging for Guidance of Targeted Endomyocardial Injections of Therapeutic Cells, Real-Time Tagging of Muscle Dynamics in a 70cm Bore 1.5T Scanner 50. Ozturk-Isik, Esin, 65, 1779 Spectroscopic Imaging of 1H at 3T: Comparing SNR Between Traditional Phase Encoding and Echo-Planar Techniques in the Human Brain, Quantitative SENSE Spectroscopy of Gliomas at 3T 51. Saritas, Emine, 3466 DWI of the Spinal Cord with Limited FOV Single-Shot EPI 52. Sumbul, Uygar, 2945 High Frame Rate Cardiac Imaging Using Kalman Filtering 53. Tali, Turgut, 264, 3415 DWI of the Spine with a Non-CPMG Single-Shot FSE, Inductively coupled RF (ICRF) coil tracking method 54. Tatar, Idil Gunes, 1187, 1190, 3611 In Vivo Risk Zone Assessment in the Rat at 1.5T Using Manganese Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MEMRI), Cardiac Function and Infarct Size Assessment in the Rat at 1.5T, High-Resolution CSPAMM Rat Heart Tagging on a 1.5T Clinical MR System 55. Tatli, Servet, 2221 Role of Secretin Enhanced MRCP in Post Partial Pancreatectomy Patients 56. Ugurbil, Kamil, 126, 130, 150, 151, 169, 213, 291, 402, 404, 409, 421, 45, 484, 529, 592, 662, 663, 702, 892, 1078, 1103, 1158, 1495, 1887, 2125, 2484, 2619, 2752, 2784, 2825, 2877, 3057, 3234, 3267, 3535, 3647 32-Channel Lattice Transmission Line Array for Parallel MRI, High-Field Transmission Line Arrays for Transmit and Receive, Microstrip TEM Coil Optimization at 7T, Impact of Coil Diameter and Number of Coil Elements on B1 Destructive Interferences with Stripline Coil Arrays at 7 Tesla, Localized 13C NMR Measurement of NAA and GSH Turnover in the Human Brain Over Multiple Days, A Parallel Transceiver for Human Imaging at 9.4T, Functional 1H NMR Spectroscopy in Cat Visual Cortex, Dynamics of Human Brain Metabolites During Prolonged Visual Stimulation as Revealed by 1HMRS at 7 T, Utilization of Binocular Inhibitory Interaction for Reliable fMRI Mapping of Human Ocular Dominance Columns, 7T Body Imaging: First Results, fMRI at Ultra High Field (7T) with GRAPPA and SENSE, High-Field 17O Study of 3D CMRO 2 Imaging in Human Visual Cortex, Direct Imaging of CMRO 2 in Cat Visual Cortex at Rest and Visual Stimulation,, Rapid Brain Glutamate Mapping in Central and Peripheral Gray Matter at 3 and 4 Tesla Using Short TE Proton-Echo-Planar-Spectroscopic-Imaging (PEPSI), 9.4T Human Imaging: Preliminary Results, Non-Linear Effects of Strong Coupling in 13C Edited 1H NMR Spectra Obtained Without Decoupling, Towards T2 Weighted fMRI of the Whole Brain at Ultra-High Fields, Increased T2-Sensitivity in BOLD fMRI Using Stimulated Echoes: A Monte-Carlo Simulation, Multi-Coil Composite Pulses for Whole-Brain Homogeneity Improved Over RF Shimming Alone, Detection of Orientation Specific Activation Zones in Human V1 Using fMRI, Combined DTI Fiber Tracking and Histological 3D Atlas Mapping of Sensorimotor, Associative and Limbic Cortico – Striatal Circuits, 7 Tesla fMRI of Mental Maze Solving in the Human Superior Parietal Lobule Using Parallel Imaging, Imaging RCBF Changes in Response to Insulin-Induced Hypoglycemia at 3T Using Three-Coil CASL, Genotype Specific Alterations Detected in the Neurochemical Profiles of Aged Transgenic Mouse Models of Alzheimer's Disease, Intracellular MR Contrast Agents Based on Cationic Cell Penetrating Peptides: A Comparative Study, Study of Correlation Between Brain Activity and ATP Metabolic Rates by Means of 31P Magnetization Transfer and Electroencephalograph Measurement, Adiabatic Modulation of the Longitudinal and Transverse Relaxations, T1ρ and T2ρ, of Gd-Fullerenol Contrast Agent: Application for the Cellular Imaging, Spatial Resolution Dependence of DTI Tractography in Human Occipito-Callosal Region, Hemodynamics and Nonlinearities of BOLD Response to Ultrashort Visual Stimulation , Echo Time Dependence of Basal Ganglia Activation at 3T During Motor Task, Localized 13C NMR Spectroscopy in the Human Breast In Vivo, Editing Through Multiple Bonds: Threonine Detection, On the Reliability of 13C Metabolic Modeling Using Two-Compartment Neuronal-Glial Models, Quantitative Evaluation of Multi-Channel fMRI at 7 Tesla with High 1–dimensional Reduction Factors, Decoupling in Multi-Channel Bilateral Breast Imaging with Quadrature Coils 57. Uludag, Kamil, 2784 Hemodynamics and Nonlinearities of BOLD Response to Ultrashort Visual Stimulation 58. Ulug, Aziz, 2064 Volumetric and Diffusion Analysis of the Neonatal Brain 59. Uluturk, Asli, 264 A Novel Catheter Tracking Method Using Reversed Polarization 60. Unal, Gozde, 1753 Semi-Automated Lymph Node Staging Using LN-MRI 61. Unal, Orhan, 1398,1441,3644 Multi-Mode Probes for MR-Guided Therapeutic Endovascular Interventions, Image-Guided Interventional Device for 3D Access and Localization of Breast Lesions, Peripheral Angiographic Applications of HYPR TRICKS 62. Unlu, Mehmet Burcin, 2947 Improving the Accuracy of the Chromophore Reconstruction in Diffuse Optical Tomography by Using Structural and Functional-Priors from MRI 63. Ustun, Ali Oguz, 2150,2164 Automated Identification of Minimal Myocardial Motion for Improved Image Quality in Coronary MRA at 3T, Coronary MR Angiography at 3T During Diastole and Systole 64. Yesilyurt, Baris, 2784 Hemodynamics and Nonlinearities of BOLD Response to Ultrashort Visual Stimulation 65. Yildirim, Muhammed Synopsis of the Studies 8. Improving Rigid Head Motion Correction Using Parallel Imaging Roland Bammer1, Chunlei Liu1, Murat Aksoy1 1Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA A novel method to determine and correct for rigid in-plane body motion is introduced. The method utilizes parallel imaging to correct for missing k-space data that result from the initial motion correction. The utility of the new method has been first verified in simulation studies and was then tested in healthy volunteers that were asked to move their head at three intensity levels (no, mild, and moderate motion) during data acquisition. A significant reduction of motion artifacts was observed. The new correction scheme is a promising tool for multi-shot DTI, PWI or fMRI studies to monitor and correct for motion. 32. Longitudinal Changes in Vascular Function in a Canine Aging Model Measured by Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI and the Correlation of Blood-Brain-Barrier Permeability with Beta-Amyloid Angiopathy Assessed by Immunohistochemical Staining Min-Ying Su1, Viorela Pop1, Long Vu1, Yong Chu1, Bruce A. Muggenburg2, Orhan Nalcioglu1, Elizabeth Head1 1University of California, Irvine, California, USA; 2Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA We investigated the changes in vascular volume and BBB permeability in a canine model of human aging during the critical aging decline period of 3 years. The interventions, anti-oxidant diet or environmental enrichment, improved the vascular function measured by dynamic contrast enhanced MRI. They increased the blood volume in the frontal lobe after one year, and delayed the BBB permeability worsening for 2 years compared to controls. MRI results demonstrated that BBB permeability was higher in occipital lobe than frontal lobe, which was higher than in parietal lobe, and the order was the same in Abeta angiopathy study using immunohistochemical staining. 65. Spectroscopic Imaging of 1H at 3T: Comparing SNR Between Traditional Phase Encoding and Echo-Planar Techniques in the Human Brain Matthew L. Zierhut1, 2, Esin Ozturk1, 2, Albert P. Chen1, 2, Pieter Pels2, Charles H. Cunningham3, Daniel B. Vigneron1,2, Sarah J. Nelson1, 2 1UCSF/UCB Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering, San Francisco, California, USA; 2UCSF, San Francisco, California,USA; 3Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA The effects of various echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) techniques on data quality were investigated for 1H spectroscopy in the human brain. Specifically, signal to noise ratio (SNR) was compared across imaging techniques for creatine, choline, and NAA. The results show a slight loss in relative SNR when compared to standard phase-encoded chemical shift imaging (CSI) throughout the various EPSI techniques. However, the spectroscopic data are still clinically acceptable, and there are less lipid aliasing artifacts. 109. Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Imaging and Quantitative Analysis of Prostate Cancer at 3 Tesla Iclal Ocak1, Marcelino Bernardo2, Gregory Metzger3, 4, Yolanda McKinney5, Peter Choyke1 1National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 2SAIC-Frederick, Frederick, Maryland, USA; 3Philips Medical Systems, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 4University of Minnesota, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 5National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA Endorectal coil MRI of the prostate has been extensively studied at 1.5 T for detecting and staging prostate cancer. The potential advantage of 3.0 T MRI is higher signal to noise ratios leading to higher temporal and spatial resolution. In this study we evaluated T2-weighted, DCE-MRI images and pharmacokinetic parameters in 36 patients with biopsy proven prostate cancer with endorectal coil at 3.0 T. The combined sensitivity and specificity of T2-weighted and DCE-MRI images were 77% and 78%, respectively. Although all of the pharmacokinetic parameters were higher in biopsy proven cancer area than inflammatory and benign foci for an individual patient, there was considerable overlap in like regions across all patients. In spite of these results further investigations need to be performed on tumor pathophysiological parameters and the addition of MR spectroscopy to the T2W and DCE-MRI may further improve the results. 126. A 32 Channel Lattice Transmission Line Array for Parallel MRI Gregor Adriany1, Ark Gozubuyuk1, Johannes Ritter1, Carl Snyder1, Pierre-Francois Van de Moortele1, Steen Moeller1, J Thomas Vaughan1, Kamil Ugurbil1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA We present a 32 channel lattice head array based on transmission lines for very high field. For this, a combination of concentric transmission line elements was pursued to demonstrate that they can be used both in parallel and perpendicular orientation to the magnetic field and to investigate whether an array consisting of a combination of both type of elements improves SNR and parallel imaging performance. Our results demonstrate that concentric arrangements of transmission line arrays are feasible at 7 Tesla and improve the achievable reduction factors significantly. 130. A Parallel Transceiver for Human Imaging at 9.4T Lance DelaBarre1, Carl J. Snyder1, Kamil Ugurbil1, J Thomas Vaughan1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA At 9.4T, the short Larmor wavelength of RF in the human head produces an inhomogenous distribution of B1. To correct some of these variations, a parallel transceiver was designed and tested. Each element in a multichannel coil has a separate RF path, which includes a dedicated broadband amplifier and digital receiver. Each coil is independently computer-controlled with digital phase shifters and programmable attenuators modifying the waveform prior to amplification. This additional control will facilitate feedback driven B1 shimming and other applications. 150. Functional 1H NMR Spectroscopy in Cat Visual Cortex Ivan Tkac1, Kamil Ugurbil1, Noam Harel1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Neuronal activity in primary visual cortex of cats has been extensively investigated using different fMRI techniques. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the feasibility of determining the detection threshold for multiple brain metabolites with highly resolved in vivo 1H NMR spectroscopy in the cat visual cortex at 9.4 T. Exceptional spectral quality was achieved which allowed reliable quantification of 16 brain metabolites (CRLB < 15%). Preliminary data showed that during visual stimulation the concentration of all metabolites varied within the detection threshold range of the spectroscopic method (±0.2µmol/g). 151. Dynamics of Human Brain Metabolites During Prolonged Visual Stimulation as Revealed by 1HMRS at 7 T Silvia Mangia1, Ivan Tkac1, Rolf Gruetter2, Pierre-Francois Van De Moortele1, Bruno Maraviglia3, Kamil Ugurbil1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; 2Centre d’Imagerie Biomedicale, EPFL and Univ. of Lausanne and Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland; 3University of Rome "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy By means of ultra-short echo-time STEAM (TE = 6 ms), we determined on twelve subjects the time-course of lactate and other metabolites during prolonged visual stimulation at 7 T. The group analysis revealed significant concentration changes for lactate (+20%), glutamate (+2%), aspartate (-20%) and glucose (-15%). In general, changes in metabolite concentrations were within ±0.2 µmol/g. Lactate increased within 1-2 min by about 0.2 µmol/g and returned to baseline after the stimulus ended. The reported changes of opposite sign in aspartate and glutamate implicated that amino-acid homeostasis is affected by physiological stimulations. 169. Utilization of Binocular Inhibitory Interaction for Reliable fMRI Mapping of Human Ocular Dominance Columns Nanyin Zhang1, Xiao-Hong Zhu1, Essa Yacoub1, Kamil Ugurbil1, Wei Chen1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA A fMRI approach based on the binocular inhibition between the left-eye and right-eye ocular dominance columns (ODCs) is introduced for spatially differentiating and mapping ODCs in human brain. This approach does not require the image subtraction so that is insensitive the degree of symmetry of the BOLD activities from the neighboring ODCs. The reliability of maps generated with the proposed approach can be examined from multiple aspects: human ODC morphology, difference between high-resolution and low-resolution maps, mapping reproducibility and mapping reversibility. The results validated the proposed approach which should provide reliability and accuracy for spatially mapping the functional column structures in human brain. 198. Optimization of the Self-Reference Thermometry Using Isolated Regions for Complex Signal Estimation Daisuke Kokuryo1, Kagayaki Kuroda2, 3, Etsuko Kumamoto4, 5, Bilgin Keserci6, Atsuya Okada7, Toshiya Kaihara5, Susumu Fujii5 1Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 2Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Tokai University, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan; 3Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 4Information Science and Technology Center, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 5Faculty of Engineering, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan; 6MR Imaging Application Tech Center, GE Yokogawa Medical Systems Ltd, Hino, Tokyo, Japan; 7Iseikai Hospital, Osaka, Japan In the “referenceless”, or self-reference thermometry technique, temperature estimation errors could be increased when thermal changes, or spatial irregularities, in the complex signals were included in the region for estimation (RFE), which was placed to surround the region of interest (ROI) covering the spot of heating. To solve this problem, size, shape and placement of RFE(‘s) were devised to serve better temperature monitoring capability for focused ultrasound surgery of uterine fibroids. Errors in temperature estimation with a single, “doughnut-like” RFE located on the tissue boundary were significantly reduced by using multiple, spatially-isolated RFE’s allocated to avoid the tissue boundary. 213. 7T Body Imaging: First Results J. Thomas Vaughan1, Carl Snyder1, Lance DelaBarre1, Lizann Bolinger2, Jinfeng Tian1, Peter Andersen1, John Strupp1, Gregor Adriany1, Kamil Ugurbil1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; 2National Research Council-Canada, Winnipeg, MB, Canada The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of whole body human imaging at 7T. To accomplish this study new 300 MHz body coils and receivers had to be modeled, designed, built and applied. Human body images were acquired in three dimensions. The first 7T images show promise for safe and successful whole body imaging at 7T. 245. Age-Dependence and Clinical Correlates of Brain Metabolism in Rett Syndrome Luciano Farage1, Izlem Izbudak1, Genila Bibat2, Lidia M. Nagae-Poetscher1, Walter Kaufmann2, Peter B. Barker1, SakkuBai Naidu2, Alena Horska1 1Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; 2Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Thirty-five girls with a neurodevelopmental disorder of Rett Syndrome (RTT) and eight healthy girls were examined with single voxel proton MR spectroscopy at short TE. Spectra were acquired from the left frontal white matter. Compared to controls, a 10% lower NAA/Cr and a 174% higher mI/Cr was detected in RTT. NAA/Cr decreased and mI/Cr increased with age in RTT while both ratios were stable in controls. Age-related changes of NAA/Cr and mI/Cr in RTT are suggestive of progressive axonal damage with accompanying gliosis. 264. A Novel Catheter Tracking Method Using Reversed Polarization Haydar Çelik1, Aslý Ulutürk2, Yiðitcan Eryaman1, Turgut Tali2, Ergin Atalar1, 3 1Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey; 2Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey; 3The Johns Hopkins Maryland, USA Recently, the use of an inductively coupled RF (ICRF) coil in catheter tracking has been introduced. As it was described, visualization sequences and flip angles may be difficult. Here, we proposed a novel ICRF coil tracking method which enables separate visualization body in one color-coded image by utilization of reverse and forward polarization modes of a receive-only birdcage coil. 271. Fusion of Delayed Hyperenhancement MRI with Live X-Ray Imaging for Guidance of Targeted Endomyocardial Injections of Therapeutic Cells Luis F. Gutiérrez1, 2, Ranil de Silva2, Amish N. Raval2, Naheed Banu, Elliot R. McVeigh, 12, Cengizhan Ozturk2, Robert J. Lederman2 1Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; 2NHLBI, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA MRI and X-ray fluoroscopy provide complementary information for diagnosis and treatment of myocardial infarction. We fused pre-procedural delayed hyperenhancement MRI with live X-ray to guide endomyocardial injection of iron-labeled mesenchymal stromal cells to the infarcts of 12 swine. Injections were identified on post-injection T2*-weighted MRI for in vivo quantitative measurement of registration error. Injections were also spiked with tissue dye for visualization on ex vivo TTC-stained heart slices. Fusion-predicted injection locations mapped onto DHE images compared favorably with dye staining on necropsy, and in vivo error was 3.2±2.6 mm (n=64). Fusion of DHE-MRI and live X-ray enables accurate, targeted endomyocardial injections. 291. fMRI at Ultra High Field (7T) with GRAPPA and SENSE Steen Moeller1, Ute Goerke1, Kâmil Ugurbil1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Parallel imaging is a reconstruction technique which has enabled the trading of spatial SNR for either higher spatial or faster temporal resolution. The impact on the CNR for optimal fMRI studies is compared between SENSE and GRAPPA with a 1-dimensional reduction factor of 4. The noise, t-scores, p-values, and number of activated pixels are used to measure the differences. 298. MR Imaging of Ductal Carcinoma In Situ: Morphological Appearances, Kinetic Features, and Choline Quantification with Pathological Correlation Jeon-Hor Chen1, 2, H. J. Yu1, H-M Baik1, M-Y Su1, O. Nalcioglu1 1University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA; 2China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan This study showed a high percentage of DCIS (13/31) was presented with multiple foci of enhancement scattering in a region and presented as clumped pattern in MIPs. Kinetic assessment showed no correlation between the tumor grades and types of enhancement. Intermediate grade DCIS showed higher frequency of rapid initial and washout than high grade DCIS. This finding supported studies that intermediate grade DCIS has even higher microvascular density than that of low and high grade DCIS. Our study also demonstrated that choline level is detectable in DCIS, a finding different from previous reports showing no detectable choline in DCIS patients. 299. MRI Monitoring of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response in Breast Cancer of Different Phenotypes to Doxorubicin-Cyclophosphamide Followed by Taxane + Carboplatin ± Trastuzumab Regimen Min-Ying Su1, Hon J. Yu1, Jeon-Hor Chen1, Rita S. Mehta1, Toni Schubbert1, David J-B Hsiang1, Philip M. Carpenter1, Orhan Nalcioglu1 1University of California, Irvine, California, USA The response of breast cancer to AC, and AC followed by Carboplatin-Taxel ± Herceptin was studied in 53 patients. The lesions were classified into 4 types: mass, multi-nodule, diffuse, and septal pattern. With the more aggressive Taxane protocol, 25/36 achieved a complete response on MRI, with 18/21 cases proven to have a pathological complete response. The responses to three treatment regimens were significantly different, CR was found in 0/13 in AC groups, 13/23 in Her2/neu negative patients receiving AC+TCa, and 12/12 in Her2/neu positive patients receiving AC+TCaH. The MRI phenotype was not associated with response, thus not a good predictor. 331. Reconstruction of Irregular Conductivity Distributions Using MREIT at Low Current Levels Ozlem Birgul1, Lutfi Tugan Muftuler1, Mark J. Hamamura1, Orhan Nalcioglu1 1University of California, Irvine, California, USA Magnetic resonance-electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) is an imaging modality that reconstructs conductivity from magnetic field measurements generated by a current distribution. Since the conductivity values of malignant, benign, and normal tissues are significantly different, this information can be used in classification to improve specificity in breast cancer. There are several studies to determine the capabilities of MREIT using simple cases but none investigates performance in detecting irregular and more complex conductivity distributions, which models the real life cases more accurately. In this study, we showed that it is possible to resolve a 6mm inhomogeneity within an irregular region using MREIT. 332. In Vivo MRI Based Electrical Impedance Tomography of Malignant Tumors L Tugan Muftuler1, Mark Hamamura1, Ozlem Birgul1, Orhan Nalcioglu1 1University of California, Irvine, California, USA Previously, we reported preliminary results with MR based Electrical Impedance Tomography (MREIT) on several phantoms and a few animals. In the presented study, we applied the technique on ten tumor-bearing rats and collected MREIT images to investigate the potential of MREIT for characterizing malignant tumors. Results show that the tumors had significantly higher mean conductivity compared to the mean of conductivity in the rest of the body. Although heterogeneity of conductivity was observed in the tumor, the mean was still higher than the background. 365. Simultaneous Projection of Multi-Branched Vessels with Their Surroundings on a Single Image from Coronary MRA Shmuel Aharon1, Ozcan Oksuz1, 2, Christine H. Lorenz1 1Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, New Jersey, USA; 2Bilkent University, Bilkent Ankara, Turkey This study’s goal was to develop a method for visualizing coronary MRA datasets, with simultaneous projection of multi-branched vessels and their surroundings on a single image without distortion and artifacts. The algorithm uses the vessels centerlines specified by a semi-automatic tracking algorithm and/or manual user specification. We successfully visualized data from eight patients, with processing time for an inexperienced user of less than 5 minutes per data set. The presented method provides simultaneous projection of multi-branched vessels with their surrounding without distortion, and allows rapid delineation of both the left and right coronary arteries on a single image. 395. Quantitative MRI/MRS of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) William H. Perman1, Brent Neuschwander-Tetri2, Elizabeth Brunt3, Eldad Bialecki3, Dean Palmer3, Isin Akduman3,John Olynyk4, Gen Balci3 1St. Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA; 2St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA; 3St. Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA; 4University of Western Austrailia, Fremantle, Australia We performed quantitative MRI and MRS on 25 patients diagnosed with NAFLD in order to correlate the histologic measures of the disease (steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis) with the MRI and MRS parameters of calculated T1 and T2, percent fat, percent magnetization transfer (MT%), and diffusion coefficient (D). Significant changes in liver T1 were highly correlated with inflammation alone, significant percent fat correlated with decreased T1 and T2, significant changes in MT and D do not appear to correlate with histology. Summary: quantitative liver MRI/MRS is sensitive to changes due to disease, but the changes do not always correlate with histology. 401. Detection of Colorectal Liver Metastases by Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Erica Scurr1, Angela Riddell1, Gina Brown1, David Collins1, Baris Kanber2, Nandita deSouza2, Dow-Mu Koh2 1Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, Surrey, UK; 2Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, UK The use of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) has a good sensitivity and specificity for detection of colorectal cancer liver metastases. However, artifacts due to cardiac motion make DWI an inadequate diagnostic test for the left lobe of the liver. Quantitation of ADCs has utility in differentiating between benign cysts and metastases, but not between hemangiomas and metastases at b values 0-500 s/mm2. 402. Localized 13C NMR Measurement of NAA and GSH Turnover in the Human Brain Over Multiple Days Pierre-Gilles Henry1, Gulin Oz1, Elizabeth R. Seaquist1, Kamil Ugurbil1, Rolf Gruetter1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA [1-13C]glucose was infused i.v. in four healthy human volunteers for up to 50 hours in order to measure 13C label incorporation into metabolites with a low metabolic rate such as N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) and glutathione (GSH). Our results indicate that the entire pool of NAA is metabolically active, and that the time constant for NAA turnover is about 30 hours in the human brain. Our results also demonstrate the feasibility of measuring glutathione turnover from glutamate in the human brain. 405. Does Brain Glycogen Supply Fuel for Neuronal Activation? Gulin Oz1, Pierre-Gilles Henry1, Pierre-Francois van de Moortele1, Elizabeth R. Seaquist1, Rolf Gruetter1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Utilization of brain glycogen during brain activation was investigated after pre-labeling glycogen with i.v. infusions of [1-13C]glucose over extended periods (13-50 h) in five healthy volunteers. No difference in [1-13C]glycogen signal localized to the visual cortex was observed after 20 minutes of visual stimulation with a checkerboard pattern. This observation supports the hypothesis that bulk brain glycogen is mobilized when glucose supply becomes rate limiting for metabolism. A small fraction of glycogen may still be highly active under normal physiology. 409. High-Field 17O Study of 3D CMRO 2 Imaging in Human Visual Cortex Xiao-Hong Zhu1, Xiaoliang Zhang1, Nanyin Zhang1, Yi Zhang1, John Strupp1, Kamil Ugurbil1, Wei Chen1 1CMRR, Radiology Department, University of Minneasota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA It is important to develop an MR approach for noninvasively imaging the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2) which plays an essential role in brain function at both physiological and pathological states. We have conducted a preliminary study to examine the feasibility of using in vivo 17O MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) for directly obtaining 3D CMRO2 images in the human visual cortex (V1) at 7T during a 2-3 minute inhalation of 17O2. Our preliminary results indicate an excellent 17O SNR for detecting the accumulation rate of the H2 17O in brain tissue being metabolized from the inhalated 17O2. A significant increase of CMRO2 upon stimulation was observed in our initial study. 421. High-Field Transmission Line Arrays for Transmit and Receive Carl J. Snyder1, Lance DelaBarre1, Can Akgun1, Steen Moeller1, Gregor Adriany1, Kamil Ugurbil1, John Thomas Vaughan1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA At high-fields, transmission line arrays and multi-channel TEM coils have show to be useful transceivers, but the extension to using these transmission line resonator arrays in a receive-only array has not been strongly pursued. Here we have developed a 16-element, receive-only transmission line resonator array to be used in conjunction with a 16-element transmission line volume array for high-field imaging. The receiver array had improved SNR and spatial sensitivity then the larger volume array. The receiver array also shows improved cortical homogeneity over more traditional loop arrays. 457. Direct Imaging of CMRO 2 in Cat Visual Cortex at Rest and Visual Stimulation Xiao-Hong Zhu1, Yi Zhang1, Nanying Zhang1, Xiaoliang Zhang1, Kamil Ugurbil1, Wei Chen1 1CMRR, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Whether and how much CMRO2 increases during brain activation and how it influences BOLD-based fMRI have been debated for a long time. A major difficulty for resolving this controversy is the lack of reliable techniques for directly imaging CMRO2. Recent developments in the high-field 17O NMR methodology provide a promising tool for noninvasively imaging CMRO2 in animals. We have applied this methodology for obtaining 3D CMRO2 imaging in the cat visual cortex at both resting state and visual stimulation with short inhalation of 17O2 gas. The results indicate (i) a substantial CMRO2 increase in the activated regions and (ii) an essential role of oxidative metabolism in brain function. 484. Rapid Brain Glutamate Mapping in Central and Peripheral Gray Matter at 3 and 4 Tesla Using Short TE Proton-Echo-Planar-Spectroscopic-Imaging (PEPSI) Stefan Posse1, 2, Ricardo Otazo1, 3, Arvind Caprihan1, 4, Juan Bustillo2, Hongji Chen2, Chun Zuo5, Perry Renshaw5, Vincent Magnotta6, Bryon Mueller7, Kelvin O. Lim7, Kamil Ugurbil7, Paul Mullins1, Charles Gasparovic1, Jeffry R. Alger8 1The MIND Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; 2University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; 3University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; 4New Mexico Resonance, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA; 5Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 6University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA; 7University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; 8University of California in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA In this study we assess the reliability of mapping glutamate and other multiplet resonances at 3 and 4 Tesla across a whole brain slice that includes peripheral gray matter using the Proton-Echo-Planar-Spectroscopic-Imaging (PEPSI) method. Glutamate maps displayed approximately two-fold concentration differences between white matter and central and peripheral gray matter areas, and mean Cramer-Rao lower bounds of 8 % across the entire slice. Smaller, but consistent gray /white matter differences were also seen in Cr maps. Mean CRLBs at 4 T in supra-ventricular slices were significantly smaller than at 3 T (p < 0.05, except Ala and Gln). 503. Effects of MR Perfusion Parameters Selection on the Prediction of Tissue Infarction in Acute Human Stroke Ona Wu1, Walter J. Koroshetz2, R. Gilberto Gonzalez2, Thomas Benner1, Chloe J. Lopez1, Mingwang Zhu1, Joanie Cacciola2, Chris Melinosky1, Hakan Ay1, Aneesh B. Singhal2, A. Gregory Sorensen1 1Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA; 2Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Acute stroke patients not receiving thrombolysis (n=80) were retrospectively analyzed to determine whether multiparametric algorithms could be used to objectively select perfusion parameters for predicting tissue infarction. Models were generated with PWI parameters calculated by deconvolving with AIFs from ipsilateral or contralateral hemisphere, using standard or delay-insensitive methods. Separate models incorporating tracer-arrival time (DELAY) as a covariate were developed. The inclusion of DELAY as a parameter significantly (p<.01) increased performance accuracy (∆AUC=.01±.02) for all models, suggesting that the transit time for tracer arrival is an important indicator of tissue at risk of infarction in patients not receiving aggressive therapeutic intervention. 526. An Integrated Signal-To-Noise Ratio Approach for Phased-Array Coil Health Check Ceylan Celil Guclu1, Steven J. Huff1 1GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA As the number of channels increases on commercial MRI scanners, it is getting more difficult to identify individual coil element failures, and collecting reliable SNR data. The purpose of this study was (i) to design an automated software tool with appropriate protocols to identify element failures in a multicoil array (a.k.a Phased-Array Coil), (ii) to make the method immune to other internal and external disturbances, i.e. improving the gage repeatability and reproducibility. 529. 9.4T Human Imaging: Preliminary Results J. Thomas Vaughan1, Lance DelaBarre1, Carl Snyder1, Jinfeng Tian1, Peter Andersen1, John Strupp1, Gregor Adriany1, Pierre-Francois van de Moortele1, Kamil Ugurbil1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Preliminary results of human head imaging at 9.4T are reported. To achieve safe and successful brain images at this new high-field bench mark, new RF technology and methods were required. Fortuitously the short Larmor wavelengths responsible for RF related artifacts also facilitate the B1 field phase and gain control required to compensate these artifacts. The multi-channel transceiver equipment, RF coils and interactive methods required to optimize image homogeneity and other criteria at 9.4T are presented. First of a kind 9.4T images so acquired are shown. 571. “Shoot and Scoot” MR Angiography: Clinical Experience in a Symptomatic Population with Peripheral Vascular Disease Jean Michel M. Serfaty1, Jean Pierre P. Laissy1, Pelin Aksit2, Elisabeth Schouman-Claeys1, Patrice Hervo3 1University Hospital of Bichat, Paris, France; 2GE Healthcare Technology, Baltimore, Maryland, USA; 3GE Healthcare Technology, Buc, France We assessed an improved version of the single injection multi-station bolus chase MRA technique known as “Shoot and Scoot” (SNS) in a symptomatic population of patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease of the lower limbs. By enabling a faster bolus chase, SNS permitted to reduce venous contamination at infrapopliteal arterial vasculature while preserving spatial resolution compared to standard multi-station peripheral MRA methods, and preserving SNR compared to multiple injection approaches to imaging the peripheral vascular tree. 572. A Curved Thigh Cuff for Suppressing Venous Enhancement on Peripheral MRA Martin R. Prince1, Hale Ersoy2, Honglei Zhang1, Hui Xu3, Minh Chao1, Kiyarash Mohajer1, Bernard Ho1 1Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, New York, USA; 2Brigham and Womens Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA; 3Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA A curved cuff was developed for thigh compression to eliminate venous contamination at the calf station of bolus chase peripheral MRA. It uses a Urethane laminate with a Velcro surface and a curved shape optimized for a snug fit on the conical shape of the leg. Inflation is uniform and controlled with 59 spot welds. The cuff has o-ring sealed connectors to a coiled conduit for inflation via an MRI compatible hand inflator or a high precision autoinflator connected to a pressure source. Consistent effective venous compression is achieved with this dedicated cuff system compared to MRA without venous compression. 577. MRI Measurements of Tumor Size and Pharmacokinetic Parameters as Early Predictor Variables in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Neoadjuvant AC-Chemotherapy Hon J. Yu1, Min-Ying Su1, Rita Mehta1, Orhan Nalcioglu1 1University of California, Irvine, California, USA Neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which plays an important role in breast-cancer therapy, requires a reliable means to predict the response of tumor at early times once the chemotherapy is initiated so that the patient could be spared from ineffective treatment. MRI measurements of tumor-size and pharmacokinetic parameters (Ktran and kep) were investigated in 27 breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant AC-chemotherapy to ascertain their values as predictors of response. Statistically significant reductions in both parameters were observed after 1-2 cycles of AC only for the responders predicting their response after 4 cycles of AC, complementing the size-reduction observed after 1-2 cycles of AC. 581. Proton Chemical Shift Imaging for Characterization of Heterogeneous Human Breast Tumors Hyun-Man Baik1, Min-Ying Su1, Hon J Yu1, Jeon-Hor Chen1, O. Nalcioglu1 1University of California-Irvine, Irvine, California, USA The chemical-shift imaging (CSI) is a useful technique for analyzing the regional heterogeneity of tumor metabolites. We applied high-resolution 2D-CSI technique to measure the spatial heterogeneity of choline-containing compounds (Cho) in malignant and benign breast lesions and demonstrated the feasibility of this technique for characterizing breast tumors within an acceptable scan time. Therefore, we conclude that the use of CSI technique for a clinical 1.5T study might be of value for further characterization of DCE-MRI enhanced lesions to improve specificity. 582. Quantification of Choline-Containing Compounds in Malignant Breast Cancer by 1H Single-Voxel MR Spectroscopy at 1.5T Hyun-Man Baik1, Min-Ying Su1, Hon J Yu1, O. Nalcioglu1 1University of California-Irvine, Irvine, California, USA To investigate the feasibility of internal reference method for quantifying the Cho concentrations in patients with malignant breast tumors using a clinical 1.5T scanner, and to compare the Cho concentration range measured with the current method with previously published results. We have performed singlevoxel MR spectroscopy and demonstrated the potential of the method for the absolute quantification of Cho metabolite in malignant breast lesions. The Cho levels from 28 spectra (82 %) were in a range of 0.76 ?10.22 mmol/kg, which seems to be consistent with previously published value (i.e., 0 ?10 mmol/kg). 592. Non-Linear Effects of Strong Coupling in 13C Edited 1H NMR Spectra Obtained Without Decoupling Julien Valette1, Fawzi Boumezbeur1, Malgorzata Marjanska2, Kâmil Ugurbil2, Vincent Lebon1, Pierre-Gilles Henry2 1CEA-SHFJ, Orsay, France; 2CMRR, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Analysis of in vivo 13C edited 1H NMR spectra is hampered by spectral overlap, and linear combination modeling is being increasingly used to overcome this problem. Up to now, it was implicitly assumed that isotopomer spectra are linear, i.e. the spectrum of any isotopomer (labeled at several carbon positions) can be linearly decomposed to a basis-set consisting of spectra of isotopomers labeled at only one carbon position. In this work this assumption of linearity is investigated. It is demonstrated that, when 13C decoupling is not performed, the linearity assumption is intrinsically incorrect for strongly coupled systems such as glutamate. 662. Towards T2 Weighted fMRI of the Whole Brain at Ultra-High Fields Johannes Ritter1, Pierre-Francois van de Moortele1, U. Goerke1, Kamil Ugurbil1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Spin Echo (SE) BOLD based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) is less sensitive to the extra vascular response from larger vessels and, at ultra-high magnetic fields, is less sensitive to blood contributions to functional mapping signals. Hence, SE fMRI is less contaminated by contributions which may originate far from the actual site of neuronal activation than Gradient-recalled Echo (GE) fMRI. A major disadvantage of SE fMRI signals is that the mapping signals are inherently weak. However, they increase supralinearly with magnetic field and attain usable magnitudes at ~7 Tesla or above. Thus, SE fMRI at ultra-high magnetic fields provide a high contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and high spatial accuracy method for functional mapping (see for instance [1], [2]). Specific absorption rate (SAR) considerations, however, have been a limiting factor in pursuing multi slice SE Echo-Planar Imaging (EPI) at ultra high field strengths. In this study, a slab wise T2 magnetization preparation followed by a multislice series of GE EPI readouts is presented. This method reduces SAR significantly. Robust BOLD responses are observed. 663. Increased T2-Sensitivity in BOLD fMRI Using Stimulated Echoes: A Monte-Carlo Simulation Ute Goerke1, Kamil Ugurbil1 1CMRR/University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Monte-Carlo simulations were applied to calculate the relative BOLD signal changes in a stimulated echo sequence. The model was based on the diffusion of water molecules in the presence of local magnetic field variations in the vicinity of capillaries and venules. Neighboring vessels were included to account for long diffusion times. The predicted increase of the relative signal change with longer echo and mixing time is consistent with experimental results. It is concluded that more efficient dynamic averaging is the main mechanism for the enhanced T2-sensitivity of the STE. 697. Accurate Absolute Thermal Monitoring with RF Radiometry AbdElMonem El-Sharkawy1, Paul Sotiriadis1, Paul Bottomley1, Ergin Atalar1 1Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA The MRI scanner can be used as a radiometer to passively measure noise power emitted by the human body and obtain absolute thermal measurement. The accuracy of thermal measurements depends critically on the precision with which the receiver coils can be matched and tuned to eliminate variations in the receiver chain characteristics. Here we present a new impedance sensing system for RF radiometry that has an accuracy of 0.1Ω. The system allows for continuous impedance sensing, matching and calibration that achieve, in phantom studies, temperature detection with accuracy of 0.2°C. This offers the potential for real-time SAR monitoring. 702. Multi-Coil Composite Pulses for Whole-Brain Homogeneity Improved Over RF Shimming Alone Christopher M. Collins1, Zhangwei Wang1, Weihua Mao1, Jieming Fang1, Wanzhan Liu2, Gregor Adriany2, J. Thomas Vaughan2, Kamil Ugurbil2, Michael B. Smith1 1Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA; 2University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA In recent years a number of methods for improving image homogeneity in high field MRI have been proposed, some of them relying on separate control of RF coils in a transmit array. Here we combine accurate RF field calculations with accurate representations of the Bloch equation to demonstrate that by using multiple individually-optimized pulses, more homogeneous distributions in available signal intensity over the entire brain volume can be achieved at 300 MHz than when using a single optimized (or RF shimmed) pulse with the same transmit array. 713. Extension of the Diffusion Orientation Transform (DOT) to Multiexponential Signal Attenuation Evren Ozarslan1, 2, Baba C. Vemuri2, Stephen J. Blackband2 1National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 2University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA The diffusion orientation transform (DOT) enables the estimation of water displacement probability profiles from high angular resolution diffusion-weighted MRI data. The method assumes independent monoexponential signal attenuations along different directions if a single spherical shell is sampled. When several concentric shells in q-space are sampled, the transform can trivially be extended to multiexponential signal attenuations. Although estimated fiber orientations seem unaffected, the proposed extension of the DOT improves the resolution of individual fiber populations. The method has the potential to yield a significant reduction in the required number of acquisitions for 3-dimensional q-space imaging. 753. An In-Vivo Image Intensity Correction Method for High Field Systems Ceylan Celil Guclu1, Hiroyuki Kabasawa2, Zhu Li1 1GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA; 2GE Yokogawa Medical Systems, Hino-shi, Tokyo, Japan In this work we developed a technique to reduce the dielectric effect related image non-uniformity at high field. The method is practical for all routine clinical high field imaging. Phantom and volunteer scans performed to test the efficiency and robustness of the technique. Some of the results were presented in the text. 780. Local Planar Gradients with Order-Of-Magnitude Strength and Speed Advantage Bulent Aksel1, Bruce D. Collick2, Luca Marinelli1, William D. Barber1, Paul A. Bottomley3, Christopher J. Hardy1 1General Electric, Niskayuna, New York, USA; 2General Electric, Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA; 3Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA We have designed, built, and tested a planar gradient set producing gradient fields of 250 mT/m in X and Y, and 500 mT/m in Z at 320 A current. This is an order-of-magnitude increase in performance over present clinical systems, but in a limited field-of-view (FOV). Because FOV is limited, dB/dt levels remain within safe levels so the gradient system can be used for rapid, high-resolution, and efficient diffusion-weighted MRI. Initial imaging experiments on normal volunteers show excellent image quality after correcting for gradient nonlinearity, without excessive coil heating or movement. 892. Detection of Orientation Specific Activation Zones in Human V1 Using fMRI Essa Yacoub1, Kamil Ugurbil1, Noam Harel1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA The development of high field systems have allowed for improved capabilities of BOLD fMRI. Higher signal to noise ratios as well as increased spatial specificity have made robust mapping of cortical columns in humans attainable. Several groups have previously demonstrated ocular dominance columns (ODC) maps in humans using fMRI; however, to date there haven’t been any studies that have successfully mapped orientation specific activation in humans directly. In this work, we show for the first time, direct mapping of orientation specific domains in humans with respect to established ODC maps. 900. NAA/Cr Tightly Correlates with Extracellular GABA in Surgically Treated Hippocampal Epilepsy Jullie W. Pan1, Idil Cavus2, Dennis Spencer2, Hoby Hetherington1 1Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, USA; 2Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA While it is known that extracellular GABA can be elevated in the seizure focus, the etiology of its increase is unknown. Animal and human studies of extracellular GABA in epilepsy have shown several abnormalities in GABA physiology, and that relatively mild mitochondrial injury results in increased GABA release. We correlated 1H MR spectroscopic imaging data from n=14 epilepsy patients undergoing microdialysis studies of extracellular GABA, finding an unusually strong correlation between GABA concentrations with NAA/Cr (R=-0.96, p<1xe-4). This argues that GABA release, enhanced under conditions of mitochondrial injury is heavily controlling extracellular GABA levels. 903. Quantitation of Cellular and Biochemical Alterations in Hereditary Ataxias by 1H MRS at 4 Tesla Gulin Oz1, Isabelle Iltis1, Diane Hutter1, Christopher M. Gomez1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Neurochemical profiles of the vermis, cerebellar white matter and pons of healthy volunteers (N=10) and patients with spinocerebellar ataxias (SCA2 and SCA6, N=4 in each group) were obtained by ultrashort-echo STEAM spectroscopy and LCModel. Concentrations of 9-12 metabolites were measured reliably and corrected for atrophy. Major alterations in the profile indicating processes such as neuron loss, gliosis and reduced glucose utilization were observed in all three volumes-of-interest. The pattern of involvement of the three regions agreed well with the known pathology of these two ataxia types. 925. Iterative T2 Estimation from Highly Undersampled Radial Fast Spin-Echo Data Christian Graff1, Zhiqiang Li1, Ali Bilgin1, Maria Altbach1, Arthur F. Gmitro1, Eric W. Clarkson1 1University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA T2-weighted imaging is a valuable method for the diagnosis of many pathological disorders, though T2 measurements are lengthy and impractical for routine clinical use. Recently a radial fast-spin echo method was developed which greatly reduces acquisition time. Data acquired in this way is very undersampled in spatial high frequencies, which results in errors in the T2 estimation of small objects. We present an iterative reconstruction technique based on projection onto convex sets (POCS), which can extract accurate T2 estimates from this undersampled data set. 935. Development of a VBM Protocol for Assessing Regional Gray and White Matter Brain Changes in a Canine Model of Aging P D. Tapp1, Kevin Head1, Elizabeth Head1, Nortan W. Milgram2, Bruce A. Muggenburg3, Orhan Nalcioglu1, Min-Ying Su1 1University of California, Irvine, California, USA; 2University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 3Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA VBM was performed on 62 scans to assess regional brain changes in a canine model of human aging. Standard dog brain templates and probability maps were created from 192 scans. In males and females, GM atrophy was greatest in the frontal and temporal lobes, respectively. In WM, atrophy was largest in the optic nerve bundle and alveus of the hippocampus for males and females, respectively. Consistent with earlier manual planimetry, frontal lobe atrophy was observed in aging dogs. Moreover, age-related atrophy was more widespread than initially reported and varied among males and females using VBM procedures. 1028. From ADC to Probability Profiles: The Diffusion Orientation Transform Evren Ozarslan1, 2, Timothy M. Shepherd2, Baba C. Vemuri2, Stephen J. Blackband2, Thomas H. Mareci2 1National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA; 2University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA The diffusion orientation transform establishes a direct link between the probabilities for water displacements and the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) that can be obtained from high angular resolution diffusion imaging. ADCs can be transformed into a spherical tensor enabling the computation of the probabilities via a Laplace series. Alternatively, the probability profile can be reconstructed directly. A matrix formulation of the method enables a simple implementation of the transform. Smoother probability profiles can be obtained by a simple modification of the signal values. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate the ability of the DOT to accurately resolve fiber orientation heterogeneity. 1030. Comparison of Diffusion Tensor Imaging Between Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and Normal Controls Using Statistical Parametric Mapping Rahyeong Juh1, 2, Min Ying Su1, Chang Uk Lee2, Tae Suk Suh2, Orhan Nalcioglu1 1University of California, Irvine, California, USA; 2Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea Voxel-based statistical analysis can be performed to compare changes in a group of patients or each individual patient to a control group; however, spatial normalization is required to minimize the anatomical variability between studied subjects. In this study we investigated whether the seizure focus in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) can be identified compared to controls. The templates for ADC and FA were generated from the control subjects. Each individual TLE patient was compared to the normal group data to investigate whether the seizure focus can be identified. Also the group comparison was performed using statistical parametric mapping analysis. 1078. Combined DTI Fiber Tracking and Histological 3D Atlas Mapping of Sensorimotor, Associative and Limbic Cortico – Striatal Circuits Saâd Jbabdi1, Eric Bardinet2, Habib Benali1, Didier Dormont2, Kamil Ugurbil3, Jérôme Yelnik4, Stéphane Lehéricy1, 3 1Inserm/UPMC, Paris, France; 2CNRS, Paris, France; 3University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; 4Inserm, Paris, France The purpose of this study was to combine diffusion tensor fiber tracking and 3D deformable histological atlas of the human basal ganglia to build a probabilistic map of cortico – striatal connections. Results provide a 3D atlas and connectivity-based segmentation of the striatum. Visualization of corticostriatal connections allows delineating the sensorimotor, associative and limbic territories of the basal ganglia. 1103. 7 Tesla fMRI of Mental Maze Solving in the Human Superior Parietal Lobule Using Parallel Imaging Trenton Jerde1, Scott Lewis1, Ute Goerke1, Pierre-Francois Van De Moortele1, Gregor Adriany1, Steen Moeller1, Kamil Ugurbil1, Apostolos Georgopoulos1 1University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA We used a 7 T magnet and parallel imaging to show that single voxels in the human superior parietal lobule (SPL) are “tuned” for the direction of attention. Subjects mentally traversed four directions of a maze. Single voxels were directionally tuned, with approximately the same number of tuned voxels in each hemisphere. Preferred directions in the two hemispheres were distributed evenly across the 360-degree continuum. These results lay the groundwork for analyses of the functional representation of visuospatial information in the SPL, and they demonstrate the efficacy of imaging highly specific cognitive functions at high magnetic fields. 1158. Imaging RCBF Changes in Response to Insulin-Induced Hypoglycemia at 3T Using Three-Coil CASL Edward