Using a T 1ρ MRI based indirect detection method, we demonstrate the detection of cerebral oxidative metabolism and its modulation by administration of the mitochondrial uncoupling agent 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP) in a large animal model with minimum utilization of 17 O 2 gas. The study was performed by 17 O 2 inhalation in swine during imaging on clinical MRI scanners. Metabolic changes in swine were determined by two methods. First, in a series of animals, increased metabolism caused by DNP injection was measured by exhaled gas analysis. The average whole-body metabolic increase in seven swine was 11.9% þ ∕ − 2.5% per mg∕kg, stable over three hours. Secondly, hemispheric brain measurements of oxygen consumption stimulated by DNP injection were made in five swine using T 1ρ MRI following administration of 17 O 2 gas. Metabolism was calculated from the change in the T 1ρ weighted MRI signal due to H 2 17 O generated from 17 O 2 inhalation before and after doubling of metabolism by DNP. These results were confirmed by direct oxygen-17 MR spectroscopy, a gold standard for in vivo H 2 17 O measurement. Overall, this work underscores the ability of indirect oxygen-17 imaging to detect oxygen metabolism in an animal model with a lung capacity comparable to the human with minimal utilization of expensive 17 O 2 gas. Given the demonstrated high efficiency in use of 17 O 2 and the proven feasibility of performing such measurements on standard clinical MRI scanners, this work enables the adaption of this technique for human studies dealing with a broad array of metabolic derangements.2,4-dinitrophenol | cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption | CMRO2 | oxygen-17 D erangement of oxidative metabolism is noted in numerous conditions including Alzheimer's disease, cerebral ischemia, cancer, and aging. Despite the known derangements in oxidative metabolism that occur in many diseases, there are still no routine clinical, nonradioactive technologies that directly assess oxidative metabolism. To address this need, a number of studies have investigated techniques based on 17 O, the only stable, naturally occurring, NMR-visible isotope of oxygen. These techniques utilize either proton detection of 17 O through the strong 1 H-17 O J-coupling in water (1), termed "indirect" imaging (2-5), or "direct" spectroscopy based upon imaging of the 17 O nucleus in H 2 17 O (6-10).While the direct detection methods are highly specific to 17 O, their inherent low SNR requires either long acquisition times or ultrahigh magnetic fields, which precludes their implementation in the routine clinical setting. In contrast, indirect detection methods exploit the higher sensitivity of proton MR and can be implemented on routine clinical scanners. Using both direct and indirect 17 O MR detection methods, oxidative metabolism has been demonstrated in small animals such as cats, rats, and mice (4, 11-13). To date there have been only two published abstracts of direct 17 O NMR studies of healthy humans (14, 15). There have been no reports of indirect de...