Deuterium magnetic resonance spectroscopy for assessing glucose metabolism in healthy and in neurooncology diseased brain. Review

Abstract

Aim: to present a new method for assessing glucose catabolism in brain tissues of healthy volunteers and neurooncology patients. This method is MR spectroscopy with resonance frequency of deuterium (hydrogen isotope) called deuterium metabolic imaging - DMI.Material and methods. We searched scientific papers in PubMed and Google Scholar indexing systems for 2017–2022 publicatioin years. Keywords used: deuterium spectroscopy, DMI, DMV, PET, non-proton spectroscopy, brain tumor metabolism, Warburg effect in brain tumor, glucose/glucolytic flux/metabolism.Results. 474 articles were analyzed, 21 of which were used for this review. The references list additionaly includes 9 articles for 1924–2014 pyublication years. The review covers the history of proton and multinuclear MR spectroscopy (phosphorus, carbon, deuterium) development of and PET diagnostics. We described DMI applicability in visual and quantitative assessment of tissue metabolism disorders in brain tumors and discussed its future use in clinical practice.Conclusion. Compared to fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET, the DMI method provides additional information on metabolic disorders during anaerobic glycolysis in a tumor. DMI can be implemented and performed on clinical MRI scanners.