Multi-nuclear in vivo MR spectroscopy at ultra-high field

Our fundamental understanding of normal physiology and of the mechanisms underlying diseases has been significantly influenced by magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and its application to healthy subjects and patients. This non-invasive tool for investigating the human metabolism in vivo has been used to study metabolic changes under the influence of ageing, exercise, nutrition and medication. It can provide information relevant to processes in diseases which include but are not limited to metabolic and neurological disorders (e.g. diabetes, myopathies, Parkinson`s disease, epilepsy) and many forms of cancer (e.g. in the brain, breast or prostate). These MRS methods can benefit greatly from a very high magnetic field strength (e.g. 7 Tesla) of the MR scanner, due to a gain in usable signal and an increased separation of resonances characteristic for the metabolites that can be distinguished in the spectra. A particular gain is expected for the detection of signals originating from the carbon nucleus with its potential for acquiring highly specific information on metabolites and metabolic rates in living tissues. For a successful implementation of in vivo MRS methods at such high fields, especially on systems suitable for human whole body applications, several challenges have to be overcome. A sufficiently high excitation frequency band width needs to be achieved, while complying with limitations for power transmission and dissipation. The steps necessary for achieving this goal, including implementation of MR pulse sequences and hardware development, shall be pursued during this fellowship at a research institution with a long standing expertise in multi-nuclear MRS methodology. Advanced MRS methods developed on systems dedicated to basic research shall be transferred to an ultra-high field MR system suitable for clinical studies on humans during the fellowship. The equipment available at the host institution proposed for the fellowship is compatible, but currently advances possibilities of any Austrian research institution, e.g. by the option for parallel transmission of radio frequency pulses on independent channels or a laboratory for construction of dedicated RF coils. Working in this environment will subsequently allow straight-forward transfer of the developed methods to application-oriented clinical studies on humans. These methods will contribute to advances in the diagnosis of metabolic diseases in general, to improve treatment options and patient outcome.