Characterizing the imaging performance of magnetic tracers by Magnetic Particle Spectroscopy in an offset field

Magnetic Particle Spectroscopy (MPS) is a powerful tool for the characterization of MPI tracers in terms of their harmonic signal. However, there is no established procedure to derive important imaging parameters from MPS spectra, such as the achievable spatial resolution or the minimum iron concentration in a voxel. In order to provide this information for a specific tracer material, acquiring MPS spectra at different offset fields is suggested. This paper shows that a MPS device, equipped with an offset field generator, can easily be extended from 0D spectroscopy to 1D imaging via sequential measurements using different offset fields for every position in the field of view. Doing so, MPS can be used to compare tracers concerning their 1D imaging characteristics.