Ming Lu1, 2, Yi Zhang1, 2, Kamil Ugurbil1, 2, Wei Chen1, 2, Xiao-Hong Zhu1, 2
1Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, United States; 2Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, United States
31P MRS provides a unique tool to directly investigate the mechanisms of synthesis, transfer and utilization of the cerebral high-energy phosphate compounds, which has significantly advanced our understanding of bioenergetics in the brain. In this study, we examined the 31P relaxation time and NMR sensitivity from phantom solution and rat brain at high/ultrahigh fields, i.e., 9.4 and 16.4 Tesla. The measured in vivo T1 relaxation times of PCr were 3 s and 1.5 s at 9.4T and 16.4T, respectively. The results also showed an improvement of the 31P SNR at 16.4T as compared with 9.4T (1.6-fold higher for both of the phantom and rat brain studies). These findings suggest that the increasing field strength could improve the in vivo 31P MRS quality and spatial resolution, and shortening total acquisition time for localized 31P MRS. It benefits the application of in vivo 31P MRS in detecting altered bioenergetics associated with brain function and neurological diseases.