Determination of Computationally Efficient Multi-pool Model Fitting Approach for Pulsed Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer MRI

Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an emerging imaging technique that detects lowly-concentrated labile protons which can have many potential clinical applications. Multi-pool model fitting is a CEST quantification technique that is able to quantify the pure CEST effect of the individual labile proton pools for a more accurate analysis. However, multi-pool model fitting suffers from long computational times which make it impractical for clinical use. There are two approaches with which multi-pool model fitting may be performed. This study aimed to determine the more efficient approach for the multi-pool model fitting for pulsed CEST MRI. Simulated CEST data using published model parameters were applied to assess the computational efficiency of the different approaches. Both approaches were able to produce equal accuracy but one of them was twice more computationally efficient than the other. However, further work is required to further improve the speed of multi-pool model fitting of pulsed CEST for potential future clinical applications.