1Department
of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco,
San Francisco, CA, United States; 2GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA,
United States; 3Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging,
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; 4Department
of Neurosurgery, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA,
United States; 5Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic
Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United
States
We have designed a hyperpolarized 13C metabolic imaging experimental setup for the human brain and demonstrated its feasibility by acquiring in vivo data from a healthy non-human primate brain. 13C coils and pulse sequences were designed and tested using phantom and rats. Dynamic 13C data acquired from a healthy non-human primate brain showed excellent detection of pyruvate and lactate in brain. The metabolite conversion kinetics showed distinctive characteristics between the brain and its surrounding tissues. These results suggest that this technique may provide a unique way to investigate in vivo metabolism in patients with brain tumors.