Very short echo time proton MR spectroscopy of human brain with a standard transmit/receive surface coil

Abstract

A method for localized proton spectroscopy of the human brain is proposed which can be used with a standard transmit/receive planar surface coil producing an inhomogeneous RF field. Water suppression is accomplished by a train of full passage adiabatic pulses with optimized frequencies and delays, which account for variation in the water resonance frequency and the spin-lattice relaxation time. The robust method requires minimal pulse calibration and provides high-quality spectra even at very short echo times and in the absence of outer volume saturation and, therefore, is well suited for clinical in vivo spectroscopy. Performance of the method is demonstrated on a test object and on MR spectra from the human brain at 3 T.