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A comparison of spectral quality in magnetic resonance spectroscopy data acquired with and without a novel EPI-navigated PRESS sequence in school-aged children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

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Abstract

Single voxel spectroscopy (SVS) can generate useful information regarding metabolite concentrations provided that the MR signal can be averaged over several minutes during which the subject remains stationary. This requirement can be particularly challenging for children who cannot otherwise be scanned without sedation. To address this problem we developed an EPI volume navigated (vNav) SVS PRESS sequence, which applies real-time head pose (location and orientation), frequency, and first-order B0 shim adjustments. A water-independent preprocessing algorithm removes residual frequency and phase shifts resulting from within-TR movements. We compare results and performance of the standard and vNav PRESS sequences in a sample of 9- to 10-year-olds from a South African cohort of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and healthy controls. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) data in the deep cerebellar nuclei were initially acquired with the standard PRESS sequence. The children were re-scanned 1 year later with the vNav PRESS sequence. Good quality data were acquired in 73 % using the vNav PRESS sequence, compared to only 50 % for the standard PRESS sequence. Additionally, tighter linewidths and smaller variances in the measured concentrations were observed. These findings confirm previous reports demonstrating the efficacy of our innovative vNav sequence with healthy volunteers and young children with HIV and expand its application to a school-aged population with FASD—disorders often associated with attention problems and hyperactivity. This study provides the most direct evidence to date regarding degree to which these new methods can improve data quality in research studies employing MRS.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by grants from the South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation of South Africa, Medical Research Council of South Africa, NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R21AA017410, R01AA016781, R01 AA09524, U01 AA014790, and U24 AA014815) and the University of Cape Town, Wayne State University, and Joseph Young, Sr., Fund from the State of Michigan. We thank Siemens, Bruce Spottiswoode, Ph.D., the CUBIC radiographers Marie-Louise de Villiers and Nailah Maroof, Lindie du Plessis for assistance with LCModel analyses, Mathematician/Physicist M. Dylan Tisdall, our UCT and WSU research staff Maggie September, Nicolette Hamman, Mariska Pienaar, Emma Makin, and Neil Dodge. We also thank the dysmorphologists, H. Eugene Hoyme, Luther K. Robinson, and Nathanial Khaole, who conducted the dysmorphology diagnostic examinations of the children for FASD, funded by U01 and U24 grants from the Collaborative Initiative on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (listed above). We also greatly appreciate the participation of the mothers and children in the longitudinal study.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Correspondence to Sandra W. Jacobson or Ernesta M. Meintjes.

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Hess, A.T., Jacobson, S.W., Jacobson, J.L. et al. A comparison of spectral quality in magnetic resonance spectroscopy data acquired with and without a novel EPI-navigated PRESS sequence in school-aged children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Metab Brain Dis 29, 323–332 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-014-9487-6

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