MR Methods for the Detection of New Contrast Agents Based on Fluorine Compounds

The aim of the Master thesis was to analyze, improve and implement current and novel sequences for fast spectroscopic imaging of 19F agents. These agents exhibit large chemical shift dispersions. The large chemical shift of 19F compounds leads to pronounced off resonance effects at clinical whole body systems with finite RF power. With a dedicated analytical framework the arising problems and artifact formation were investigated for an existing fast multi-echo sequence. Furthermore, more stable steady-state pulse sequences using multiple pulse phase-increments were characterized and implemented. Measurements were carried out using a 3T clinical setup on both phantoms and in-vivo to validate theoretical predictions. The multi spin-echo approach was shown to have problematic spectral and spatial features, while the implemented steady-state approach shows solid performance.