Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate regional differences in relative metabolite ratios in the normal human brain by Ή MR spectroscopy (MRS), and compare the spectral quality obtained by the automated prescan method (PROBE) and the manual method.
Materials and Methods
Localized 1H MRS was performed on a GE 1.5 T SIGNA MRl/MRS system (version 5.5) with active shielded gradients. For 20 normal volunteers aged 8 — 47 years, spectral parameters were adjusted by the auto- prescan routine provided by a PROBE package (N二34) and manually(N=33). Five regions of the human brain were examined(N=PROBE, manual): frontal white matter(N=6, 10), parietal white matter(N=8, 9), basal ganglia(N=6, 5), thalamus (N二4, 5), and cerebellum(N=4, 4). For all spectra, a STEAM localization sequence with three-pulse CHESS H2O suppression was used, with the following acquisition parameters :TR=3.0 sec, TE=30 msec, TM=13, 7 msec, SW=2500Hz, SI=2048 pts, AVG=48, and NEX=2.
Results
A total of 61 reliable spectra were obtained by PROBE (28/34=82% success) and by the manual method(33/33= 100% success). Regional differences in the spectral patterns of the five regions were clearly demonstrated by both PROBE and the manual methods. For prescanning, the manual method took slightly longer than PROBE(3 —5 mins and 2 mins, respectively). There were no significant differences in spectral patterns and relative metabolic ratios between the two methods. However, auto-prescan by PROBE seemed to be very vulnerable to slight movement by patients, and in three cases, an acceptable spectrum was thus not obtained.
Conclusion
PROBE is a highly practical and reliable method for single voxel 1H MRS of the human brain å the two methods of prescanning do not result in significantly different spectral patterns and the relative metabolite ratios. PROBE, however, is vulnerable to slight movement by patients, and if the success rate for obtaining quality spectra is to be increased, regardless of the patient's condition and the region of the brain, it must be used in conjunction with the manual method.
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