Sonal Josan1,2, Daniel Spielman2,
Yi-Fen Yen3, Ralph Hurd3, Adolf Pfefferbaum1,4,
Dirk Mayer1,2
1SRI International, Menlo
Park, CA, United States; 2Radiology, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA, United States; 3GE Healthcare Applied Science Laboratory,
Menlo Park, CA, United States; 4Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
This work demonstrates time-resolved volumetric metabolic imaging of hyperpolarized [1-13C]-pyruvate using an undersampled spiral MRSI sequence, and applies it to investigate Pyr metabolism modulated by ethanol in rat liver. The dynamic 3D acquisition allows the analysis of spectra from organ-specific regions-of-interest, thus providing improved rate-constant estimates. Ethanol metabolism in the liver leads to accumulation of NADH which is a coenzyme in Pyr-to-Lac conversion. The apparent liver Pyr-to-Lac rate constants increased from pre- to post-ethanol, confirming the hypothesis that NADH levels are rate-limiting for liver Pyr-to-Lac conversion.