Frequency-Specific SSFP Imaging of Hyperpolarized 13C Compounds at 14.1T

Cornelius von Morze¹, Subramaniam Sukumar¹, Galen Reed¹, Peder E. Larson¹, John Kurhanewicz¹, Daniel B. Vigneron¹

The spectral selectivity of SSFP in the low flip angle regime enables frequency-specific imaging of hyperpolarized ¹³C compounds. Through simulations, we optimized the acquisition parameters for dynamic frequency-specific SSFP imaging of co-polarized [1-¹³C]pyruvate and [¹³C]urea, which is useful for studying tumor metabolism and perfusion in vivo. We implemented the methods as a dynamic frequency-cycled bSSFP pulse sequence on a 14.1T animal MRI scanner. We performed thermal and hyperpolarized phantom studies to test the acquisition, and performed in vivo dynamic imaging of a normal mouse kidney.