Simultaneous lactate editing and observation of other metabolites using a stimulated-echo-enhanced double-quantum filter

Conventional double-quantum editing techniques recover only one metabolite at a time, and are thus inefficient for monitoring metabolic changes involv ing several metabolites. In this paper, a stimulated-echo-enhanced selectiv e double-quantum coherence transfer (STE-SelDQC) sequence is described, whi ch allows simultaneous observation of lactate and other metabolites in a si ngle scan while leaving fat and water signals suppressed. A frequency selec tive double-quantum filter designed for lactate editing suppresses fat and water resonances and a stimulated-echo window of adjustable frequency and b andwidth is incorporated into the double-quantum filter for simultaneous ob servation of other metabolites. The performance of the sequence is demonstr ated in phantoms and rat brain tissue. (C) 1999 Academic Press.