Single-voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) provides quantification of brain metabolite levels in vivo. However, MRS studies suffer from an often overlooked source of error variance: inconsistent voxel placement. It is well-established that metabolite levels vary by brain region and voxel tissue composition. Thus, inconsistent voxel placement increases likelihood of Type I and II errors. To address this problem, we developed and evaluated a novel and automated method of prescribing voxel placements at the time of scanning. Results demonstrated a significant improvement in prescribing accurate and reliable voxel placements between and within subjects compared to manual placement and published methods.
This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.