In vivo¹H-MRS of the rat brain with a clinical 3 T whole-body MR Scanner: Estimation of absolute metabolic concentrations and T₂ values

Abstract

In vivo single voxel ¹H-MR measurements were performed in a rat’s brain on a clinical whole-body 3 T MR scanner by using a dedicated small animal head RF-coil. Spectroscopic experiments were performed with and without water suppression as well as with different echo times (TE) by placing a 0.5 ml voxel in the rat cerebrum. Absolute concentrations of tNAA, tCr, tCho, mIns, Lac and Glu were estimated by applying the internal tissue water reference technique. In addition, T₂ values for tNAA, tCr and tCho were determined by mono-exponential fitting of metabolite intensities sampled at the different echo times.