Retrospective Correction for Induced Magnetic Field Inhomogeneity in Measurements of Large-Vessel Hemoglobin Oxygen Saturation by MR Susceptometry

MR susceptometry-based blood oximetry relies on phase mapping to measure the difference in magnetic susceptibility between intravascular blood and surrounding tissue. The main source of error in MR susceptometry is the static field inhomogeneity caused by an interface between air and tissue or between adjacent tissue types. High-pass filtering has previously been used in conjunction with shimming to reduce the effect of low spatial-frequency modulations of the phase caused by large-scale induced magnetic fields. We demonstrate that high-pass filtering is not optimum for MR susceptometry because the results are sensitive to filter size. We propose an alternative method that acquires data without scanner-implemented default shimming, and fits, after appropriate weighting and masking, the static field inhomogeneity to a second-order polynomial. Compared to shimming the retrospective correction technique improved agreement between hemoglobin saturations measured in different segments of a vessel (femoral versus popliteal artery and vein) from three standard errors to less than one. Magn Reson Med 61:626-633, 2008. (C) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.