AbdEl-Monem M. El-Sharkawy1, Refaat E. Gabr1, Michael Schr1, 2, Robert G. Weiss, 13, Paul A. Bottomley1
1Division of MR Research, Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Philips Healthcare, Cleveland, OH, United States; 3Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States
Cardiac 31P MRS with surface coils promises better quantification at 3T compared to 1.5T. However, T2-decay, power deposition limitations and increased field inhomogeneities, pose greater challenges for determining absolute metabolic concentrations at 3T. Using a recently developed 31P cardiac setup, we developed a semi-automated measurement and analysis protocol that compensates for the nonuniform sensitivity and provides measurements of human cardiac high-energy phosphate concentrations. The method was validated in one-dimensional-chemical-shift-imaging phantom studies, demonstrating errors of 8% on average. The measured 31P MRS cardiac metabolite concentrations were [PCr]=9.31.7 and [ATP]=5.21.0 mol/g in healthy volunteers, in agreement with prior measures at lower fields.