Abstract #3519

Fast Volumetric Imaging of Ethanol Metabolism in Rat with Hyperpolarized [1-13C]-Pyruvate

Sonal Josan^1,2, Daniel Spielman², Yi-Fen Yen³, Ralph Hurd³, Adolf Pfefferbaum^1,4, Dirk Mayer^1,2

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.