Imaging of sodium in the brain: a brief review

Sodium‐based MRI plays a vital role in the study of metabolism and can unveil valuable information about emerging and existing pathology – in particular in the human brain. Sodium is the second most abundant MR active nucleus in living tissue and, due to its quadrupolar nature, has magnetic properti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NMR in biomedicine 2016-02, Vol.29 (2), p.162-174
Main Authors: Shah, N. Jon, Worthoff, Wieland A., Langen, Karl-Josef
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
acquisition methods
applications
Brain - anatomy & histology
Brain Mapping
clinical applications
Diagnostic Imaging - methods
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MR-PET hybrid imaging
neurological
neuroscience
Positron-Emission Tomography
Sodium - metabolism
sodium imaging
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Summary:Sodium‐based MRI plays a vital role in the study of metabolism and can unveil valuable information about emerging and existing pathology – in particular in the human brain. Sodium is the second most abundant MR active nucleus in living tissue and, due to its quadrupolar nature, has magnetic properties not common to conventional proton MRI, which can reveal further insights, such as information on the compartmental distribution of intra‐ and extracellular sodium. Nevertheless, the use of sodium nuclei for imaging comes at the expense of a lower sensitivity and significantly reduced relaxation times, making in vivo sodium studies feasible only at high magnetic field strength and by the use of dedicated pulse sequences. Hybrid imaging combining sodium MRI and positron emission tomography (PET) simultaneously is a novel and promising approach to access information on dynamic metabolism with much increased, PET‐derived specificity. Application of this new methodology is demonstrated herein using examples from tumour imaging. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The distribution and concentrations of sodium are indicators of pathology, which can be imaged non‐invasively and in vivo using MRI. We discuss and compare different imaging techniques suitable for sodium imaging, including methods for differentiating between the intracellular/extracellular compartments and MR‐PET. Applications to brain imaging are presented, with an emphasis on neurological disorders and diseases. Figure from Fiege et al. ().
ISSN:0952-3480
1099-1492
DOI:10.1002/nbm.3389