Quantification of iopamidol multi-site chemical exchange properties for ratiometric chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) imaging of pH

pH-sensitive chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) MRI holds great promise for in vivo applications. However, the CEST effect depends on not only exchange rate and hence pH, but also on the contrast agent concentration, which must be determined independently for pH quantification. Ratiometric CEST MRI normalizes the concentration effect by comparing CEST measurements of multiple labile protons to simplify pH determination. Iopamidol, a commonly used x-ray contrast agent, has been explored as a ratiometric CEST agent for imaging pH. However, iopamidol CEST properties have not been solved, determination of which is important for optimization and quantification of iopamidol pH imaging. Our study numerically solved iopamidol multi-site pH-dependent chemical exchange properties. We found that iopamidol CEST MRI is suitable for measuring pH between 6 and 7.5 despite that T1 and T2 measurements varied substantially with pH and concentration. The pH MRI precision decreased with pH and concentration. The standard deviation of pH determined from MRI was 0.2 and 0.4 pH unit for 40 and 20 mM iopamidol solution of pH 6, and it improved to be less than 0.1 unit for pH above 7. Moreover, we determined base-catalyzed chemical exchange for 2-hydrooxypropanamido (ksw = 1.2*10pH−4.1) and amide (ksw = 1.2*10pH−4.6) protons that are statistically different from each other (P < 0.01, ANCOVA), understanding of which should help guide in vivo translation of iopamidol pH imaging.