# Deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) of neurological disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $468,414

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Detection of disease progression as well as evaluation of therapeutical interventions are important in the
management of many neurological disorders. Metabolic alterations such as altered glucose metabolism often
play a crucial role in conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and brain tumors. Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (MRI) is commonly used to monitor neurological diseases due to its high sensitivity and
excellent soft tissue image contrast. However, MRI has very limited capabilities to image active tissue
metabolism. MR spectroscopic methods such as 1H, 13C, hyperpolarized 13C and 31P MR spectroscopic imaging
(MRSI) are important MR research tools that can detect metabolism non-invasively in vivo. Unfortunately, none
of these methods have reached clinical significance because of technical complexity, lack of robustness and/or
low sensitivity. Deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) is a new, MR-based method that can map active metabolism
of deuterated substrates non-invasively in vivo. DMI is unique in that it is extremely robust, while providing good
sensitivity and information content, and thus has great promise to be integrated in the clinic.
 The clinical potential of DMI has sparked rapid adoption by research groups worldwide, whereby DMI
has primarily been implemented on (ultra)-high-field MR research scanners. However, such MR scanners (≥ 7T)
are only available at specialized research sites and represent only ~1% of the broadly available 3T MR scanner
base, and thus severely limit the availability of DMI. Our main goal is to assist DMI to become an accessible
method to study larger, diverse patient populations and establish its added value to neuroimaging by increasing
the spatial resolution of DMI and implement and validate the technique on a standard 3T MR scanner.
 The RF coil is one of the primary determinants of the sensitivity and overall performance of MRI and DMI.
Aim 1 is dedicated to the design, optimization and construction of a multi-element 1H/2H RF coil for high-quality
DMI and MRI of human brain. Emphasis is placed on high-sensitivity, whole-brain coverage for DMI while
retaining clinical MRI quality and acceleration potential. Aim 2 is focused on novel acquisition and processing
methods to provide robust 2H-based metabolic maps of cerebral glucose metabolism with increased sensitivity
at 3T. Improved detection sensitivity is pursued through balanced steady-state free precession and proton
decoupling. A complete processing pipeline will be developed for reproducible generation of 2H-based metabolic
maps, cumulating in a user-friendly graphical user interface. Aim 3 is centered on establishing the reproducibility
of DMI at 3T with test-retest scans on healthy subjects. Also, patients with brain tumors are studied to
demonstrate the clinical applicability of DMI. Upon successful completion, this project will deliver the hardware
(RF coil) and software (sequences, processing) necessary to achieve rob...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10801292
- **Project number:** 2R01EB025840-05
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** ROBIN A DE GRAAF
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $468,414
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2019-04-15 → 2028-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10801292

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10801292, Deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) of neurological disease (2R01EB025840-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10801292. Licensed CC0.

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