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.