Patrick Schuenke, Daniel Paech, Christina Koehler, Johannes Windschuh, Peter Bachert, Mark E. Ladd, Heinz-Peter Schlemmer, Alexander Radbruch, Moritz Zaiss

Common medical imaging techniques usually employ contrast agents that are chemically labeled, e.g. with radioisotopes in the case of PET, iodine in the case of CT or paramagnetic metals in the case of MRI to visualize the heterogeneity of the tumor microenvironment. Recently, it was shown that natural unlabeled D-glucose can be used as a nontoxic biodegradable contrast agent in Chemical Exchange sensitive Spin-Lock (CESL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect the glucose uptake and potentially the metabolism of tumors. As an important step to fulfill the clinical needs for practicability, reproducibility and imaging speed we present here a robust and quantitative T1ρ-weighted technique for dynamic glucose enhanced MRI (DGE-MRI) with a temporal resolution of less than 7 seconds. Applied to a brain tumor patient, the new technique provided a distinct DGE contrast between tumor and healthy brain tissue and showed the detailed dynamics of the glucose enhancement after intravenous injection. Development of this fast and quantitative DGE-MRI technique allows for a more detailed analysis of DGE correlations in the future and potentially enables non-invasive diagnosis, staging and monitoring of tumor response to therapy.