Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in deep human brain structures at 7 T

Abstract

The increased magnetization and frequency separation at high magnetic field strength, such as 7 T, can provide spectra of high signal-to-noise ratio and spectral resolution. However, most human brain magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies at 7 T have employed surface coils and thus limited to superficial brain structures. In this study, volume coil excitation together with volume array reception has been utilized to access deeper brain areas. RF power limitations have been addressed by the use of VERSE-modified pulses, and spectra in parietal and pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) have been acquired in eight subjects using STEAM with a short echo time of 20 ms. Spectra were analyzed using LC-model. Therefore, an experimental basis set of in vitro spectra was established from 20 human brain metabolite solutions. An exemplary comparison with an optimized PRESS-based single voxel MRS method at 3 T has been performed. Despite the intrinsically lower signal in STEAM, the 7 T spectra show 1.87 times higher signal-to-noise ratio than at 3 T (using PRESS) and more metabolites could be quantified reliably. The results show that the proposed method can be employed at 7 T in deep brain structures and allows the absolute and relative concentrations of human brain metabolites to be determined with low error levels.