via Teams - 3PM
Title: X-Nuclei MRI - A short overview and some new projects
Abstract: X-nuclei (or non-proton) MRI has the potential to provide new metabolic information in vivo that cannot be measured with standard proton (1H) MRI, and particularly it could help assess cellular energy metabolic processes that are dysregulated in many pathologies. Sodium (23Na) MRI is being developed to detect changes in ionic homeostasis in tissues, that can be related to cancer, neurodegeneration, cartilage depletion and other impairments of metabolic processes, as well as to the efficacy of their treatments. Other nuclei such as phosphorus (31P), deuterium (2H), potassium (39K), chlorine (35Cl) or oxygen-17 (17O) can also be detected with MRI to generate spatial maps of specific metabolites or metabolic activity in vivo in brain and other organs. In this talk, I will shortly introduce the techniques and challenges of X-nuclei MRI, and then present some representative projects currently in progress in my lab: (1) simultaneous 1H/23Na MR fingerprinting, (2) quantification of intracellular sodium concentration in breast cancer using combined 1H/23Na MRI, (3) absolute multinuclear MR thermometry, and (4) 4X-MRI (1H/2H/23Na/31P).