Assessing the effect of hypoxia on cardiac metabolism using hyperpolarized C magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Hypoxia plays a role in many diseases and can have a wide range of effects on cardiac metabolism depending on the extent of the hypoxic insult. Noninvasive imaging methods could shed valuable light on the metabolic effects of hypoxia on the heart in vivo. Hyperpolarized carbon-13 magnetic resonance spectroscopy (HP C MRS) in particular is an exciting technique for imaging metabolism that could provide such information.