QUANTITATIVE H-1 MRS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN IN-VIVO BASED ON THE SIMULATION PHANTOM CALIBRATION STRATEGY

Normal metabolite concentrations were determined in five different bra in regions of healthy adult volunteers using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-1 MRS) in vivo. The absolute in vivo concentrations o f N-acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine and phosphocreatine (Cre), and cho line containing compounds (Cho) were quantified from measurements obta ined with a head-shaped simulation phantom, Scanner performance and ca libration accuracy were assessed by phantom experiments, Localized spe ctra were acquired on clinical 1.5 T systems using the PRESS localizat ion sequence with frequency selective water suppression, Comparison of the results obtained from phantom experiments and human brain in vivo strongly suggests that reproducibility in vivo mainly depends on the topologic metabolite heterogeneity of brain tissue in combination with relative volume dislocalization.