Optimal voxel size for measuring global gray and white matter proton metabolite concentrations using chemical shift imaging

Quantification of gray and white matter levels of spectroscopically visible metabolites can provide important insights into brain development and path ological conditions. Chemical shift imaging offers a gain in efficiency for estimation of global gray and white matter metabolite concentrations compa red to single voxel methods. In the present study, the optimal voxel size i s calculated from segmented human brain data and accompanying field maps. T he optimal voxel size is found to be approximately 8 cc, but a wide range o f values, 4-64 cc, can be chosen with little increase in estimated concentr ation error (<15%). (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.