Exploration of bSSFP-CSI for High-resolution Deuterium Metabolic Imaging (DMI) in the human brain at 7T

Motivation: Low DMI sensitivity due to low metabolite concentration and gyromagnetic ratio can benefit from specifically tailored-acquisition methods for gaining SNR. Goal(s): To explore the balanced-SSFP CSI (bSSFP-CSI) technique for improving the DMI SNR and quality for human brain application at 7T. Approach: We performed the metabolite specific optimization for detecting deuterated metabolites at 7T using the bSSFP-CSI sequence to improve DMI SNR, then evaluate the sequence in phantom and human brain at 7T. Results: We demonstrate excellent performance of the newly implemented bSSFP-CSI approach for mapping whole-brain glucose metabolism in humans at 7T with excellent brain tissue contrast. Impact: We have explored the bSSFP-CSI approach for human brain DMI at 7T. Initial observations show promise for achieving high-quality and high-resolution DMI to map low-concentration metabolites including lactate. More rigorous quantification and validation are needed for potential translational applications.