title: Influence of muscle fiber orientation on water and metabolite relaxation times, magnetization transfer, and visibility in human skeletal muscle.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To gain a deeper understanding of the influence of skeletal muscle fiber orientation on metabolite visibility, magnetization transfer from water, and water proton relaxation rates in (1)H MR spectra.
  
  
  METHODS
  Non-water-suppressed MR spectroscopy was performed in tibialis anterior muscle (TA) of 10 healthy adults, with the TA oriented either parallel or at the magic angle to the 3T field. Spectra were acquired with metabolite-cycled PRESS, and water inversion from 50 to 2510 ms before excitation. Water proton T2 relaxation was sampled with STEAM with echo times from 12 to 272 ms.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Apparent concentrations of total creatine (tCr), taurine, and trimethylammonium compounds were reduced by 29% to 67% when TA was parallel to B0. Both tCr peak areas were strongly correlated to the methylene peak splitting. Magnetization transfer rates from water to tCr CH3 were not significantly different between orientations. Water T1s were similar between orientations, but T2s were statistically significantly shorter by 1 ms in the parallel orientation (P = 0.002).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Muscle metabolite visibilities in MR spectroscopy and water T2 times depend substantially on muscle fiber orientation relative to B0 . In contrast, magnetization transfer rates appear to depend on muscle composition, rather than fiber orientation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research and Institute of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.|Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Erin Leigh
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: MacMillan
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research and Institute of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christine Sandra
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Bolliger
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research and Institute of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boesch
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research and Institute of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kreis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: magic angle; magnetization transfer; muscle; orientation; proton MR spectroscopy