CESTsimu: An open-source GUI for spectral and spatial CEST simulation

Huabin Zhang; Bensheng Qiu; Jiadi Xu; Kannie WY Chan; Jianpan Huang

doi:10.1002/mrm.30430

CESTsimu: An open-source GUI for spectral and spatial CEST simulation

Huabin Zhang
, Bensheng Qiu
, Jiadi Xu
, Kannie WY Chan
, Jianpan Huang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Biomedical Engineering

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

38 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this study was to create a user-friendly CEST simulation tool with a GUI for both spectral (1D Z-spectra) and spatial (2D phantom) CEST experiments, making the CEST simulation easier to perform.
Methods: CESTsimu was developed using MATLAB App Designer. It consists of three modules: Saturation Settings, Exchange Settings, and Phantom Settings. CESTsimu can not only import/export files in the defined format but can also import files generated by other existing simulation platforms (e.g. pulseq-CEST).
Results: The 1D Z-spectrum simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of CESTsimu in simulating Z-spectra under various saturation (B₀ and B₁) and exchange settings (concentration and exchange rate). The 2D simulation results showed that CESTsimu can generate an arbitrary number of phantoms with different shapes under different noise conditions. Notably, CESTsimu could also simulate B₀ and B₁ inhomogeneity in 2D patterns that mimicked practical conditions. Moreover, the accuracy of CESTsimu was validated by simulating 8 cases in the BMsim challenge.
Conclusion: We developed a user-friendly CESTsimu GUI for intuitively simulating CEST experiments under diverse saturation and exchange settings in 1D and 2D conditions. CESTsimu has the potential to facilitate the broad utilization of CEST MRI among a wide range of users.
© 2025 The Author(s). Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2595-2609
Number of pages	15
Journal	Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Volume	93
Issue number	6
Online published	20 Jan 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.30430
Publication status	Published - Jun 2025

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the funding support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82402225), Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong (109000487, 204610401, 204610519, 200000341, and 109001694) and the Health and Medical Research Fund (21222621). We also thank Dr. Moritz Zaiss, Dr. Patrick Schuenke, and Dr. Kai Herz for their open-source CEST simulation tools, which were utilized for comparisons in this study. Additionally, we appreciate the ISMRM Reproducible Research Study Group for conducting a code review of the code (CESTsimu Version 0.7) supplied in the Data Availability Statement. The scope of the code review covered only the code's ease of download, quality of documentation, and ability to run, but did not consider scientific accuracy or code efficiency.

Research Keywords

B0 and B1 inhomogeneity
1D Z-spectra
2D phantom
Bloch-McConnell equation
CEST simulation
graphical user interface

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

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@article{ab7ab18ea150452e88e3234118cc6f27,

title = "CESTsimu: An open-source GUI for spectral and spatial CEST simulation",

abstract = "Purpose: The aim of this study was to create a user-friendly CEST simulation tool with a GUI for both spectral (1D Z-spectra) and spatial (2D phantom) CEST experiments, making the CEST simulation easier to perform. Methods: CESTsimu was developed using MATLAB App Designer. It consists of three modules: Saturation Settings, Exchange Settings, and Phantom Settings. CESTsimu can not only import/export files in the defined format but can also import files generated by other existing simulation platforms (e.g. pulseq-CEST). Results: The 1D Z-spectrum simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of CESTsimu in simulating Z-spectra under various saturation (B0 and B1) and exchange settings (concentration and exchange rate). The 2D simulation results showed that CESTsimu can generate an arbitrary number of phantoms with different shapes under different noise conditions. Notably, CESTsimu could also simulate B0 and B1 inhomogeneity in 2D patterns that mimicked practical conditions. Moreover, the accuracy of CESTsimu was validated by simulating 8 cases in the BMsim challenge. Conclusion: We developed a user-friendly CESTsimu GUI for intuitively simulating CEST experiments under diverse saturation and exchange settings in 1D and 2D conditions. CESTsimu has the potential to facilitate the broad utilization of CEST MRI among a wide range of users. {\textcopyright} 2025 The Author(s). Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.",

keywords = "B0 and B1 inhomogeneity, 1D Z-spectra, 2D phantom, Bloch-McConnell equation, CEST simulation, graphical user interface",

author = "Huabin Zhang and Bensheng Qiu and Jiadi Xu and Chan, \{Kannie WY\} and Jianpan Huang",

year = "2025",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1002/mrm.30430",

language = "English",

volume = "93",

pages = "2595--2609",

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TY - JOUR

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T2 - An open-source GUI for spectral and spatial CEST simulation

AU - Zhang, Huabin

AU - Qiu, Bensheng

AU - Xu, Jiadi

AU - Chan, Kannie WY

AU - Huang, Jianpan

PY - 2025/6

Y1 - 2025/6

N2 - Purpose: The aim of this study was to create a user-friendly CEST simulation tool with a GUI for both spectral (1D Z-spectra) and spatial (2D phantom) CEST experiments, making the CEST simulation easier to perform. Methods: CESTsimu was developed using MATLAB App Designer. It consists of three modules: Saturation Settings, Exchange Settings, and Phantom Settings. CESTsimu can not only import/export files in the defined format but can also import files generated by other existing simulation platforms (e.g. pulseq-CEST). Results: The 1D Z-spectrum simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of CESTsimu in simulating Z-spectra under various saturation (B0 and B1) and exchange settings (concentration and exchange rate). The 2D simulation results showed that CESTsimu can generate an arbitrary number of phantoms with different shapes under different noise conditions. Notably, CESTsimu could also simulate B0 and B1 inhomogeneity in 2D patterns that mimicked practical conditions. Moreover, the accuracy of CESTsimu was validated by simulating 8 cases in the BMsim challenge. Conclusion: We developed a user-friendly CESTsimu GUI for intuitively simulating CEST experiments under diverse saturation and exchange settings in 1D and 2D conditions. CESTsimu has the potential to facilitate the broad utilization of CEST MRI among a wide range of users. © 2025 The Author(s). Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

AB - Purpose: The aim of this study was to create a user-friendly CEST simulation tool with a GUI for both spectral (1D Z-spectra) and spatial (2D phantom) CEST experiments, making the CEST simulation easier to perform. Methods: CESTsimu was developed using MATLAB App Designer. It consists of three modules: Saturation Settings, Exchange Settings, and Phantom Settings. CESTsimu can not only import/export files in the defined format but can also import files generated by other existing simulation platforms (e.g. pulseq-CEST). Results: The 1D Z-spectrum simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of CESTsimu in simulating Z-spectra under various saturation (B0 and B1) and exchange settings (concentration and exchange rate). The 2D simulation results showed that CESTsimu can generate an arbitrary number of phantoms with different shapes under different noise conditions. Notably, CESTsimu could also simulate B0 and B1 inhomogeneity in 2D patterns that mimicked practical conditions. Moreover, the accuracy of CESTsimu was validated by simulating 8 cases in the BMsim challenge. Conclusion: We developed a user-friendly CESTsimu GUI for intuitively simulating CEST experiments under diverse saturation and exchange settings in 1D and 2D conditions. CESTsimu has the potential to facilitate the broad utilization of CEST MRI among a wide range of users. © 2025 The Author(s). Magnetic Resonance in Medicine published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

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KW - 1D Z-spectra

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KW - Bloch-McConnell equation

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JO - Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

JF - Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

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ER -

CESTsimu: An open-source GUI for spectral and spatial CEST simulation

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CESTsimu: An open-source GUI for spectral and spatial CEST simulation

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HMRF: Develop Clinical Molecular and pH Imaging for Stroke Diagnosis at 3T Human Scanner

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