Mapping metabolic changes associated with early Radiation Induced Lung Injury post conformal radiotherapy using hyperpolarized 13C-pyruvate Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging

Metabolic changes associated with RP may be mapped as early as five days post conformal radiotherapy. Over the small sample size in each cohort, elevated macrophage count, consistent with early phase of inflammation was highly correlated to increases in lac/pyr in both the irradiated and unirradiated lungs. Further experiments with larger sample size may improve the confidence of this finding.