Methods to Enhance Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Sensitivity at High Magnetic Field

MR is a well-established technique routinely used in preclinical and clinical studies. This thesis focussed on the improvement of sensitivity of different methods in MR.

Hyperpolarized 129Xe gas is used for studying pulmonary disease or cerebral perfusion. When hyperpolarization is conducted inside a polarizer, the achieved solid state polarization is currently limited to a few percent. One aim of this thesis was to counteract this bottleneck by investigating the effect of microwave frequency modulation for different spin systems. An increase in nuclear 129Xe spin polarization up to 14.5% was achieved compared to the polarization obtained without frequency modulation. Electron spin-lattice relaxation times T1S, as short as 5 ms, correlated directly with the gain in 129Xe nuclear polarization due to microwave frequency modulation, irrespective of the solvent or its deuteration. Simulations of the electron spin system confirmed that microwave frequency modulation could be an efficient method to considerably enhance nuclear spin polarization in short T1S matrices or in the presence of large linewidth radicals by promoting spectral diffusion.

DNP matrices can also be hyperpolarized through non-persistent radicals generated by UV-irradiation. They have the advantage of quenching upon dissolution, yielding a hyperpolarized solution with no need for radical filtration. Radical precursors researched up to date either yielded low 13C polarization, contained toxic matrix components or interfered with metabolic processes. Therefore, the two novel endogenously-occurring precursors, alpha-ketovalerate (akV) and alpha-ketobutyrate (akB) were investigated. Liquid state polarization of the metabolic substrate glucose increased to 16.3% using akB compared with 13.3% obtained with pyruvate. [1-13C]butyric acid was polarized to 12.1% for akV and 12.9% for akB and used for in vivo hyperpolarized cardiac MRS. Hyperpolarized [1-13C]butyrate metabolism in the heart revealed label incorporation into a wide range of metabolites. This study demonstrated the potential of using UV-induced radicals generated in the endogenously-occurring metabolites akV and akB as polarizing agents, enabling high polarization without requiring radical filtration for radical-free hyperpolarized MRI.

While MRI requires RF coils that generate high B1 homogeneity, MRS strongly depends on high sensitivity and potentially high B1 efficiency to allow for short-TE acquisitions. Two custom-made 1H coils resonating at 600 MHz, a single-channel saddle coil and an 8-leg quadrature birdcage coil, were investigated with respect to those criteria for applications at ultra-high field (14.1 T). The saddle coil yielded a 54% higher transmit field efficiency with a 20% higher SNR compared to the birdcage coil after full-FOV corrections. Using the saddle coil in glycoCEST imaging of a homogeneous phantom resulted in an MTR asymmetry coefficient of variation as small as 5.2% over an 11 mm diameter ROI. Overall, the saddle coil provided a good compromise between globally homogeneous excitation and high sensitivity. Finally, it was successfully used to map skeletal muscle glycogen content in vivo.

This thesis focused on improving MR sensitivity by means of adequate custom-made RF coils as well as DNP through the implementation of a method capitalizing on electronic spin properties and the development of novel endogenous precursors for in vivo hyperpolarized MRI.