Quantification of abnormal metabolism in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients using hyperpolarized [1-13C]-pyruvate MRI

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is the most common inherited cardiomyopathy with a worldwide prevalence of ~1:250. It is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death often during exercise and in otherwise healthy, young individuals. We applied hyperpolarized [1-13C]-pyruvate MRI for metabolic imaging to 3 patients with HCM using multi-slice, dynamic metabolite-specific imaging with autonomous scanning. We observed focal metabolic abnormalities corresponding to regions of hypertrophy in patients with asymmetric non-obstructive HCM and differences in metabolism measurements compared to healthy volunteers.