Advancing 13C Metabolic MRSI: Enhanced Imaging Techniques and an effective standardized Phantom at 11.7 T

Motivation: Rapid imaging methods with high temporal resolution and signal-to-noise ratio are required for hyperpolarized 13C-MRSI experiments. Goal(s): Evaluation and optimization of the performance of CSI, MGE and me-bSSFP in a preclinical setting with respect to the requirements of hyperpolarization. Approach: Construction of a phantom containing 13C-labeled reference solutions and SNR calculations for single metabolites in the reconstructed images acquired with optimized MRSI sequences. Results: Successful separation of phantom metabolites indicates possible application of the optimized MRSI sequences in preclinical in-vivo studies. Impact: The construction of a stable and reliable phantom with high homogeneity containing 13C-reference solutions enables standardized sequence optimization for hyperpolarized MRSI experiments. For preclinical in-vivo studies, single reference solutions can further be used for calibration measurements.