Quantitative Metabolite Mapping of 12 Metabolites in the Human Brain

Very short TR (TR < 300) MRSI is a popular method that enables fast acquisition of spectroscopic imaging data; however, raw metabolite signals following short TR acquisitions are influenced by strong T1-weighting. In order to gather more accurate images and to be able to relate MRSI results to SVS studies, it is valuable to correct for T1-weighting and to quantify MRSI images. This study presents results that utilize a voxel-specific, T1-correction method which is an advancement from more traditional methods that utilized average T1-corrections for metabolites. Fully sampled, single-slice 1H MRSI metabolite maps are presented for 12 metabolites