A fast method for in vivo lactate imaging.

A robust method for fast lactate imaging is presented using a combination of a lactate editing sequence and a one-shot imaging experiment. The lactate editing method is based on manipulation of the phase of the lactate CH3 signal via J-modulation. This is applied as a preparation experiment to the U-FLARE imaging sequence. Phantom experiments are presented in which the quality of water and lipid suppression is established. Edited lactate images with a spatial resolution of 3 microL and total measuring time of 15.8 min are shown. These were obtained from a hemispherical ischemia in the gerbil brain. The images are compared with diffusion-weighted water images.