High-resolution phosphocreatine mapping using artificial neural network-based CEST MRI at 3T: A validation study

Phosphocreatine (PCr) plays a vital role in neuron and myocyte energy homeostasis, and measurement of PCr provides a unique way to achieve insight into cellular energetics. Our previous study demonstrated that high-resolution PCr mapping of human skeletal muscle can be obtained on standard 3T clinical MRI scanner using artificial neural network-based chemical exchange saturation transfer (ANNCEST). Here, for further validation, we applied ANNCEST to measure PCr changes in exercised skeletal muscle and compared the measures with those from 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The feasibility of estimating spatially resolved PCr recovery rate constants using ANNCEST was also demonstrated.