Pulse sequence for dynamic volumetric imaging of hyperpolarized metabolic products

Dynamic nuclear polarization and dissolution of a 13C-labeled substrate enables the dynamic imaging of cellular metabolism. Spectroscopic information is typically acquired, making the acquisition of dynamic volumetric data a challenge. To enable rapid volumetric imaging, a spectral-spatial excitation pulse was designed to excite a single line of the carbon spectrum. With only a single resonance present in the signal, an echo-planar readout trajectory could be used to resolve spatial information, giving full volume coverage of 32 × 32 × 16 voxels every 3.5 s. This high frame rate was used to measure the different lactate dynamics in different tissues in a normal rat model and a mouse model of prostate cancer.