Absolute quantification of brain metabolites by 1H-MRSI using gradient echo imaging of ~2s as a concentration reference: initial findings

The unsuppressed internal water signal is a standard reference method used for quantification of brain metabolites in 1H-MRSI, however it requires additional water unsuppressed acquisition, which is in case of MRSI time demanding. Therefore we compared the performance of water signal reference acquired with unsuppressed MRSI and with ~2s long gradient echo imaging integrated into MRSI sequence. Our findings indicates that gradient echo imaging can be used as a concentration reference for 1H-MRSI.