title: Fast three-dimensional proton spectroscopic imaging of the human brain at 3 T by combining spectroscopic missing pulse steady-state free precession and echo planar spectroscopic imaging.
abstract: The combination of the principles of two fast spectroscopic imaging (SI) methods, spectroscopic missing pulse steady-state free precession and echo planar SI (EPSI) is described as an approach toward fast 3D SI. This method, termed missing pulse steady-state free precession echo planar SI, exhibits a considerably reduced minimum total measurement time T(min), allowing a higher temporal resolution, a larger spatial matrix size, and the use of k-space weighted averaging and phase cycling, while maintaining all advantages of the original spectroscopic missing pulse steady-state free precession sequence. The minor signal-to-noise ratio loss caused by using oscillating read gradients can be compensated by applying k-space weighted averaging. The missing pulse steady-state free precession echo planar SI sequence was implemented on a 3 T head scanner, tested on phantoms and applied to healthy volunteers.
authors.affiliation: Fachbereich 2, Chemie, Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany. wdreher@uni-bremen.de
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dreher
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Erhard
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leibfritz
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D011522:Protons
chemical_list: D011522:Protons