Ming Lu1,2, Xiao Wang1,2, Ryan
Taylor1,2, Yi Zhang1,2, Kamil Ugurbil1,2,
Wei Chen1,2, Xiao-Hong Zhu1,2
1Center for Magnetic
Resonance Research, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN,
United States; 2Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota
Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, United States
Application of in vivo 17O MRS has been proposed and examined for imaging the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption through detecting metabolically produced H217O from the inhaled 17O-labeled oxygen. In this study, we investigated the 17O sensitivity for detecting natural abundance H217O from phantom solution and rat brain at 9.4 and 16.4 Tesla. The 17O SNR measured at 16.4T was 2.9 and 2.6-fold higher than that at 9.4T for the phantom and rat brain studies, respectively. This SNR gain due to the increasing magnetic field strength could improve the spatial and temporal resolution for localized 17O MRS and imaging applications. It provides an opportunity for detecting altered oxidative metabolism associated with brain function and neurological diseases.