In Vivo 3D Lithium MRI of the Human Brain

Fernando Emilio Boada¹, Yongxian Qian¹, Ariel Gildengers², Mary Phillips², David Kupfer²

Bipolar Disorder (BPD) is a devastating mental illness that is often treated using Lithium Carbonate therapy. Unfortunately, lithium carbonate therapy has life-threatening side effects. Moreover, its mechanisms of action and preferred accumulation sites in the in vivo brain continue to be unknown sixty years after its original introduction. A methodology for studying the spatial distribution of lithium carbonate in the brain of BPD subjects could, therefore, be an invaluable tool for studying this disease. In this work we present the first demonstration of 3D lithium MRI in the in Vivo human Brain at 7 Tesla.