Creatine Imaging Using Chemical Exchange Filter Imaging

Zhongliang Zu¹, Junzhong Xu¹, Vaibhav Janve¹, Christopher C. Quarles¹, Mark D. Does¹, John C. Gore¹, Daniel F. Gochberg¹

Creatine imaging may provide useful biological information. MRS is able to image creatine. However, it suffers from relatively low resolution and long acquisition times. Here, we provide a chemical exchange filter imaging technique based on the recently developed chemical exchange rotation transfer (CERT) approach, that can select specific metabolites based on their exchange rates with water. Known phantom experiments show that CERT signal from creatine dominates signals from other metabolites. In vivo experiments on a rat brain with 9L tumor show that creatine imaging using CERT may serve as a new imaging biomarker to detect cancer.