Abstract #0404

Detection of Brown Fat Mass and Activity by Hyperpolarized Xenon MR

Rosa Tamara Branca¹,², Christian White¹, Le Zhang³

¹Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States; ²UNC at Chapel Hill, Biomedical Research Imaging Center, Chapel Hill, NC, United States; ³Material Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States

The detection of brown fat by conventional imaging methods (MRI, CT, 18FDG-PET) presents several challenges. This is because BAT fat-fraction can range from 40- 85%, while its metabolic activity relies mainly on fatty acid combustion. Here we demonstrate detection of BAT by in vivo HP-Xenon MR experiments and compare this methodology to 18FDG-PET and proton MRI. We show the possibility to directly map brown fat depot in the body, determine its fat fraction, measure the increase in BAT temperature and fatty acid consumption in real time by HP Xenon gas MR.