Quantification of non-water-suppressed MR spectra with correction for motion-induced signal reduction.
Intrascan subject movement in clinical MR spectroscopic examinations may result in inconsistent water suppression that distorts the metabolite signals, frame-to-frame variations in spectral phase and frequency, and consequent reductions in the signal-to-noise ratio due to destructive averaging. Frame-to-frame phase/frequency corrections, although reported to be successful in achieving constructive averaging, rely on consistent water suppression, which may be difficult in the presence of intrascan motion. In this study, motion correction using non-water-suppressed data acquisition is proposed to overcome the above difficulties. The time-domain matrix-pencil postprocessing method was used to extract water signals from the non-water-suppressed spectroscopic data, followed by phase and frequency corrections of the metabolite signals based on information obtained from the water signals. From in vivo experiments on seven healthy subjects at 3.0 T, quantification of metabolites using the unsuppressed water signal as a reference showed improved correlation with water-suppressed data acquired in the absence of motion (R(2) = 0.9669; slope = 0.94). The metabolite concentrations derived using the proposed approach were in good agreement with literature values. Computer simulations under various degrees of frequency and phase variations further demonstrated robust performance of the time-domain postprocessing approach.
Lin
Jyh-Miin
JM
Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Tsai
Shang-Yueh
SY
Liu
Hua-Shan
HS
Chung
Hsiao-Wen
HW
Mulkern
Robert V
RV
Cheng
Chou-Min
CM
Yeh
Tzu-Chen
TC
Chen
Nan-Kuei
NK
D000465:Algorithms; D016477:Artifacts; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D009068:Movement; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism*
D014867:Water