The delivery of targeted metabolic compounds can be hindered by a natural barrier in the brain. Nowadays, focused ultrasound techniques allow temporarily opening of this blood-brain barrier (BBB). Here we investigated the feasibility to combine this technique with dynamic imaging of hyperpolarized (HP) pyruvate. After opening the BBB in a focal spot, we acquired in vivo HP pyruvate images of the mouse brain using a dynamic gradient-echo imaging acquisition scheme at 7T. This approach eventually allows investigations with hyperpolarized compounds in the brain that are usually hindered by the BBB or suffer from a too slow uptake for DNP-imaging.
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