Detection Limits and Assessment of the Hepatocellular Content of Lipids using Deuterium Metabolic Imaging: a Pilot Study.

Motivation: While HCL can be assessed in vivo using 1H-MRS it may be of interest to determine it with DMI, as this offers the possibility for dynamic studies with incorporation of deuterated substances. Goal(s): Our goal was to explore the detection limits and estimate HCL based on DMI. Approach: 10 healthy subjects were measured in a 7T-MR-system with liver adjusted RF surface coil applying a single-voxel 1H-MRS-GUSTEAU sequence and a 2H-MRSI sequence. HCL was assessed by comparison with the water signal from both measurements. Results: The HCL values were underestimated when applying DMI compared to the well-established 1H-MRS ultra-short echo time GUSTEAU sequence. Impact: Besides the use of 1H-MRS, HCL can also be assessed with DMI. Due to the much lower natural abundance of 2H compared to 1H, the detection limit for 2H-HCL was estimated to be ≥1%.