Publication Date:
2015-10-02
Description:
It has recently been reported in this journal that local fat depots produce a sizable frequency-dependent signal attenuation in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) of the brain. If of a general nature, this effect would question the use of internal reference signals for quantification of MRS and the quantitative use of MRS as a whole. Here, it was attempted to verify this effect and pinpoint the potential causes by acquiring data with various acquisition settings, including two field strengths, two MR scanners from different vendors, different water suppression sequences, RF coils, localization sequences, echo times, and lipid/metabolite phantoms. With all settings tested, the reported effect could not be reproduced, and it is concluded that water referencing and quantitative MRS per se remain valid tools under common acquisition conditions. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. A recent 1 H MRS study reported frequency-dependent signal attenuation in the presence of superficial fat layers, thus questioning the clinical use of water as a reference for quantification and quantitative spectroscopy as a whole. We have attempted to verify this effect and pinpoint the potential causes by acquiring data with various acquisition settings. With all the settings the reported effects could not be reproduced. We thus conclude that water referencing remains a valid option under common acquisition conditions.
Print ISSN:
0952-3480
Electronic ISSN:
1099-1492
Topics:
Medicine
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