title: Quality management in in vivo proton MRS.
abstract: The quality of MR-Spectroscopy data can easily be affected in in vivo applications. Several factors may produce signal artefacts, and often these are not easily detected, not even by experienced spectroscopists. Reliable and reproducible in vivo MRS-data requires the definition of quality requirements and goals, implementation of measures to guarantee quality standards, regular control of data quality, and a continuous search for quality improvement. The first part of this review includes a general introduction to different aspects of quality management in MRS. It is followed by the description of a series of tests and phantoms that can be used to assure the quality of the MR system. In the third part, several methods and strategies used for quality control of the spectroscopy data are presented. This review concludes with a reference to a few interesting techniques and aspects that may help to further improve the quality of in vivo MR-spectra.
authors.affiliation: University of Bern, Switzerland; Support Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: nuno.barros@insel.ch.
authors.forename: Nuno
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pedrosa de Barros
authors.affiliation: Support Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Slotboom
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D008954:Models, Biological; D011786:Quality Control
keywords: MRS; Quality assurance; Quality control; Quality improvement; Quality management; Quality planning