Development and optimization of deuterium metabolic imaging in the human abdomen at 3T

Abstract

Motivation: Abdominal imaging of orally-administered deuterium-labelled tracers can be hindered by artifacts arising from excessive stomach signal. Goal(s): To establish and optimize methods for acquisition of abdominal deuterium metabolic imaging in conjunction with orally-administered tracers. Approach: A flexible transmit-receive surface coil was used to image naturally abundant deuterium in healthy volunteers and orally-administered D2O in a patient with renal cancer. Results: Water and lipid peaks were repeatably fit with high confidence both in unlocalised spectra and voxels extracted from MRSI in the liver, kidney, and spleen. Artifacts were minimal even 12 minutes after tracer ingestion. Impact: Feasibility of abdominal deuterium imaging at 3T was demonstrated using a flexible surface coil. We obtained consistent water measurements in healthy volunteers and good images in a patient with a left-sided renal tumour even just 12 min after drinking D2O.