Assessing gray and white matter glutamatergic turnover in human brain non-invasively using 1H MRS and deuterated glucose

Cerebral metabolism is reported to be monitored by various techniques including ¹³C/²H MR spectroscopy and ¹⁸F-FDG Positron emission tomography. It is well known that ¹H MRS allows the non-invasive detection and quantification of neurochemicals. In this study, we performed ¹H MRS in conjuction with the oral administration of [6,6′-²H₂]glucose in a healthy volunteer at 3T and 7T to measure turnover of glutamate in gray and white matter. As ²H is invisible on ¹H MRS, the ²H enrichment of glutamate leads to a corresponding drop in its ¹H MR resonance measured via LCModel.