Evaluation of the continuous wavelet transform as a potential method for postacquisition water suppression in biomedical Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy.

The analysis of biological systems by means of Proton (H-1) Magnetic Resona nce Spectroscopy (MRS) shows a prominent water resonance which obscures the small metabolite signals. Preacquisition techniques have been successfully used to remove the water resonance and to relatively enhance the other com ponent signals. However, these methods may suffer from baseline distortion and signal saturation of metabolites close to the water peak. An accurate q uantification of such components could be compromised. The present work con sists of the preliminary testing of the Continuous Wavelet Transform approa ch combined with the Data Shift Accumulation (WT-DSA) technique as a postac quisition water suppression method. A qualitative comparison has been performed between WT-DSA and two selected preacquisition water suppression techniques i.e. Presaturation and Waterga te. The comparison was achieved on a H-1 MRS unsuppressed water data collec ted from two different artificial test solutions using a whole body 4T and a high resolution narrow bore 11.7T MRS systems and based on the degree of water suppression, residual baseline distortion and signal saturation. The WT-DSA technique appears to be a promising method to remove the water c omponent without altering components near the water resonance.