MSc Defence: Development of a fast glucoCEST pulse sequence for investigating gestational metabolism and physiology

Student: Siddharth Sadanand

Supervisors: Dr. Dafna Sussman and Dr. Michael Kolios

Abstract:

Early detection and diagnosis of fetal complications during gestation are often limited by either restrictive use of invasive diagnostic methods such as amniocentesis, or non-specific diagnostic methods such as ultrasound. Non invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of tissue function through specific endogenous metabolite imaging could fill this diagnostic need. MR imaging of endogenous glucose in particular would allow for early detection of tissue metabolic dysfunction, which can impede or complicate fetal development. However, MRI suffers from long acquisition times and low sensitivity, and is susceptible to artifacts from fetal and maternal motion, confounding its applicability to fetal imaging. This thesis proposes a novel MRI pulse sequence that both expedites acquisition and ameliorates sensitivity for glucose imaging. This is accomplished through the modification of a glucoCEST pulse sequence to combine multiple glucose-sensitive acquisitions, and is validated through imaging of glucose calibration solutions and confounding contrast-producing phantoms. The glucoCEST pulse sequence produced is 32 times more sensitive to glucose than a reference CEST sequence, and acquires more than 30 times faster — in 12 seconds.