Angus Zoen Lau1,2, Nilesh Ghugre2, Albert P. Chen3, Wilfred W. Lam2, Venkat Ramanan2, Yuesong Yang2, Graham A. Wright1,2, Charles H. Cunningham1,2
1Dept. of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada; 2Imaging Research, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada; 3GE Healthcare, Toronto, ON, Canada
Hyperpolarization of spins via DNP has been explored as a method to non-invasively study real-time metabolic processes in vivo. In this abstract, we investigate the use of hyperpolarized 13C MR to study real-time cardiac metabolism in a pig model of cardiac disease. A 13C-tuned transmit/receive surface coil was used to acquire cardiac-gated non-localized dynamic spectra following injection of a hyperpolarized [1-13C]-pyruvate solution. Pyruvate, lactate, and bicarbonate resonances were observed. Spatially encoded breath-held cardiac-gated CSIs were also obtained displaying the presence of pyruvate in the blood in the chambers of the heart.