Enabling SENSE Accelerated 2D CSI For Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 Imaging

Motivation: For hyperpolarized 13C metabolic imaging studies, a challenge is to achieve high temporal resolution without decreasing spatial and/or spectral resolution. Goal(s): To accelerate hyperpolarized 13C MRI by combining a 2D Chemical Shift Imaging (CSI) sequence with SENSitivity Encoding (SENSE) reconstruction. Approach: Due to the low natural abundance of 13C, the sensitivity maps needed for SENSE reconstruction cannot be pre-acquired. As such, in this work, the novel approach of using sodium sensitivity maps was demonstrated. Results: SENSE reconstruction corrected aliased images, where in-vivo metabolic information was acquired with a 4-fold temporal acceleration. Impact: As hyperpolarized 13C metabolic imaging is clinically translated, there is a need for easy-to-implement, fast, and robust imaging techniques. Therefore, this study implemented a novel 13C technique to accelerate Chemical Shift Imaging: a ubiquitous and robust sequence.