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Global brain metabolic quantification with whole-head proton MRS at 3 T.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Kirov, II; Wu, WE; Soher, BJ; Davitz, MS; Huang, JH; Babb, JS; Lazar, M; Fatterpekar, G; Gonen, O
Published in: NMR Biomed
October 2017

Total N-acetyl-aspartate + N-acetyl-aspartate-glutamate (NAA), total creatine (Cr) and total choline (Cho) proton MRS (1 H-MRS) signals are often used as surrogate markers in diffuse neurological pathologies, but spatial coverage of this methodology is limited to 1%-65% of the brain. Here we wish to demonstrate that non-localized, whole-head (WH) 1 H-MRS captures just the brain's contribution to the Cho and Cr signals, ignoring all other compartments. Towards this end, 27 young healthy adults (18 men, 9 women), 29.9 ± 8.5 years old, were recruited and underwent T1 -weighted MRI for tissue segmentation, non-localizing, approximately 3 min WH 1 H-MRS (TE /TR /TI  = 5/10/940 ms) and 30 min 1 H-MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) (TE /TR  = 35/2100 ms) in a 360 cm3 volume of interest (VOI) at the brain's center. The VOI absolute NAA, Cr and Cho concentrations, 7.7 ± 0.5, 5.5 ± 0.4 and 1.3 ± 0.2 mM, were all within 10% of the WH: 8.6 ± 1.1, 6.0 ± 1.0 and 1.3 ± 0.2 mM. The mean NAA/Cr and NAA/Cho ratios in the WH were only slightly higher than the "brain-only" VOI: 1.5 versus 1.4 (7%) and 6.6 versus 5.9 (11%); Cho/Cr were not different. The brain/WH volume ratio was 0.31 ± 0.03 (brain ≈ 30% of WH volume). Air-tissue susceptibility-driven local magnetic field changes going from the brain outwards showed sharp gradients of more than 100 Hz/cm (1 ppm/cm), explaining the skull's Cr and Cho signal losses through resonance shifts, line broadening and destructive interference. The similarity of non-localized WH and localized VOI NAA, Cr and Cho concentrations and their ratios suggests that their signals originate predominantly from the brain. Therefore, the fast, comprehensive WH-1 H-MRS method may facilitate quantification of these metabolites, which are common surrogate markers in neurological disorders.

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Published In

NMR Biomed

DOI

EISSN

1099-1492

Publication Date

October 2017

Volume

30

Issue

10

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Protons
  • Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Creatine
  • Choline
 

Citation

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Kirov, I. I., Wu, W. E., Soher, B. J., Davitz, M. S., Huang, J. H., Babb, J. S., … Gonen, O. (2017). Global brain metabolic quantification with whole-head proton MRS at 3 T. NMR Biomed, 30(10). https://doi.org/10.1002/nbm.3754
Kirov, Ivan I., William E. Wu, Brian J. Soher, Matthew S. Davitz, Jeffrey H. Huang, James S. Babb, Mariana Lazar, Girish Fatterpekar, and Oded Gonen. “Global brain metabolic quantification with whole-head proton MRS at 3 T.NMR Biomed 30, no. 10 (October 2017). https://doi.org/10.1002/nbm.3754.
Kirov II, Wu WE, Soher BJ, Davitz MS, Huang JH, Babb JS, et al. Global brain metabolic quantification with whole-head proton MRS at 3 T. NMR Biomed. 2017 Oct;30(10).
Kirov, Ivan I., et al. “Global brain metabolic quantification with whole-head proton MRS at 3 T.NMR Biomed, vol. 30, no. 10, Oct. 2017. Pubmed, doi:10.1002/nbm.3754.
Kirov II, Wu WE, Soher BJ, Davitz MS, Huang JH, Babb JS, Lazar M, Fatterpekar G, Gonen O. Global brain metabolic quantification with whole-head proton MRS at 3 T. NMR Biomed. 2017 Oct;30(10).
Journal cover image

Published In

NMR Biomed

DOI

EISSN

1099-1492

Publication Date

October 2017

Volume

30

Issue

10

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

  • Young Adult
  • Protons
  • Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
  • Middle Aged
  • Male
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Creatine
  • Choline