Abstract #3704

Simple, cost-efficient, and highly sensitive molecular imaging with hyperpolarized milliTesla MRI

Thomas Theis¹, Johannes F. P. Colell², David E. J. Waddington^3,4,5, Warren S. Warren^1,6, and Matthew S. Rosen^4,5,7

¹Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States, ²Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States, ³School of Physics, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, ⁴A. A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁵Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States, ⁶Departments of Physics, Radiology and BME, Duke University, Durham, NC, ⁷Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

Hyperpolarized MRI is a powerful approach to non-invasisve biomolecular imaging because of high sensitivity and excellent molecular specificity. However, current methods are limited by high cost (>$5M) and short hyperpolarized signal lifetimes (<1 min). We overcome both limitations by low field (6.5 mT) imaging of molecules polarized by non-reactive transfer of spin order from parahydrogen. Both, parahydrogen polarizers and low-field MRI hardware are simple technologies affordable on a modest budget (<$200k). At low fields, we establish hyperpolarization decay time constants of above 20 min, greatly exceeding current markers. This suggests highly sensitive biomolecular MR imaging could be done at the cost of an X-Ray.

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