A Multi-Sequence, Interleaved MRI-DMI Protocol for Human Brain

Abstract

Deuterium Metabolic Imaging (DMI) is an emerging method to spatially map metabolism in vivo. To enhance the time efficiency of a combined MRI-DMI protocol, interleaved MRI-DMI acquisitions were developed for multiple clinical MRI sequences. The protocol includes four MRIs that are commonly used in neurological MRI exams, namely FLAIR, T2W, SWI and T1W MP-RAGE, with DMI acquisition in parallel, acquired in 28 minutes. We demonstrate the performance of the interleaved MRI-DMI protocol on healthy human brain and discuss the guiding principles as well as limitations of extending other MRI sequences with DMI using the presented interleaving strategy.