In-vivo 31P MRSI in healthy and malignant human pancreas at 7 Tesla

Abstract

Early response assessment for patients with pancreatic cancer receiving chemotherapy is limited. Detection of alterations in 31P metabolite levels during treatment could change this perspective. However, to date 31P MRS has not yet been demonstrated in the human pancreas in vivo. Here we show in-vivo 31P MRSI data in the pancreas of healthy subjects, using a 31P whole-body transmit coil in combination with a 16-channel receive array at 7T, and show moderate to good test-retest reliability. In addition, we demonstrate the feasibility of performing 31P MRSI in a patient with pancreatic cancer before and after chemotherapy.