Providing a clinical pipeline for using the sodium-23 resonance to calibrate for in vivo hyperpolarized carbon-13 experiments.

Hyperpolarized ¹³C MRI is an emerging clinical technique to probe metabolism. Calibration of transmit gain and centre frequency is challenging, due to the low endogenous ¹³C signal. Pre-scan is typically performed by adding an external phantom for reference, however this is challenged by the shim volume inside the subject and the RF coil excitation and receptions profiles. We demonstrate the ability to use the sodium-23 resonance to accurately prescan prior to ¹³C experiments, using single tuned ¹³C coils in a 3T MRI system. This provides an important workflow improvement for the adoption of hyperpolarized ¹³C imaging into clinical practise.