Metabolic Exchange Rate Imaging with Hyperpolarised [1-13C]Pyruvate

Rolf F. Schulte¹, Oleksandr Khegai¹, ², Eliane Ferral², Martin A. Janich¹, Marion I. Menzel¹, Axel Haase³, Markus Schwaiger², Florian Wiesinger¹

Metabolic imaging with hyperpolarised [1-13C]pyruvate and its downstream metabolites requires quantitative methods in order to relate image intensities to the underlying physiological processes. In this work, we improve and compare two different approaches for metabolic exchange rate imaging: saturation-recovery and frequency-domain metabolic modelling. The comparison of the different methods acquired during two separate injections in four rats bearing subcutaneous MAT B III tumours show an excellent agreement with each other, both yielding exchange rates in the tumour of kPL=0.08 s-1.