Development of a Fast GlucoCEST Pulse Sequence for Investigating Gestational Metabolism and Physiology

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 would allow for early detection of tissue metabolic dysfunction, which can impede or complicate fetal development. However, standard 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. The implemented glucoCEST pulse sequence is validated through imaging of glucose calibration solutions and confound-producing phantoms. The glucoCEST pulse sequence produced is more sensitive and has faster acquisition than a reference CEST sequence.