Researchers from Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital are behind a mathematical model that rubber stamps scanning methods which examine the body’s metabolism fifty times faster than corresponding PET scans.

2018.02.08 | Helle Horskjær Hansen

The PET scanner functions in many ways like a MRI scanner, but an examination takes ninety minutes and makes use of a radioactive substance when measuring the metabolic processes in the body. With a MRI scanner, it takes two minutes.

A team of researchers from AU and AUH have developed a mathematical model that validates scanning methods which examine the body's metabolism faster than similar PET scans and more accurately than normal MRI scans.

In the new study, researchers have shown that by using their mathematical model of data from a specific type of scan called a hyperpolarisered MRI scan, it is possible to achieve the same results from their measurements as with a PET scanner, but without the use of radioactive substances. And at the same time, their method is much faster.

"When we can get the same results from the MRI scanner as from the PET scanner, it shows that the method works as we want it to," says one of the researchers behind the study, Associate Professor Christoffer Laustsen from the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University.

Specifically, it means that medical doctors can potentially make use of MRI scans to assess e.g. how effective a cancer treatment is. Cancer cells are characterised by having a dramatically changed metabolism, and this is something that the new MRI scan can measure. With the new model, the researchers have been given a more quantitative target for the change in the metabolism compared to what previous methods could provide.

People can now be measured

The mathematic model has just been published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.

"Within a few hours, we can see whether a cancer treatment is effective or not. This means that in future we will no longer have to wait weeks or months to measure whether the cancerous tumour has changed size," says Christoffer Laustsen.

The MRI scan is so new that it is only in use in a few locations around the world.

"It is still early days, but it has an enormous perspective because it allows measurements that were otherwise not possible. And in step with its development together with a mathematical model such as ours, it can become an important supplement to PET scans," explains Christoffer Laustsen.

The researchers have recently obtained permission to examine whether the method works on patients with cancer of the pancreas. This means that they are among the first in the world to offer this new advanced method for measurements in humans. Researchers will be able to follow the development of the cancer while the patients are receiving treatment, and then continuously adjust the treatment to improve patients' chances of beating their disease.
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PET and MRI scans

PET scans are a clinical examination method for examining patients for various diseases and e.g. whether cancer has spread. MRI scans examine the body's organs. The method makes uses of magnetic fields and radio waves, among other things, to produce images of the inside of the body. PET scans look at the cells absorption of sugar as a measure of cellular metabolism, while MRI scans look at what the sugar is converted into.

Hyperpolarised MRI is a method to improve examinations using an MRI. By changing the (hyperpolarised) carbon in the sugars that are injected into the body, doctors can follow how the sugars are absorbed and converted by the body's cells.

More information about the result

The study is basic research.

The study is a collaboration between the MR Centre, the PET Centre at Aarhus University and GE Healthcare.

Link to the article Hyperpolarized [1-13C]-acetate Renal Metabolic Clearance Rate Mapping

Contact

Associate Professor, PhD, Christoffer Laustsen
Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital
Tel.: (+45) 2443 9141
cl@clin.au.dk