Myocardial Fat Content: Single Breath-Hold 1H-MR Spectroscopy at 3 T

Belen Rial¹, Stefan Neubauer¹, Matthew D. Robson¹, Jurgen E. Schneider¹

Proton MR Spectroscopy provides a window into myocardial metabolism. Cardiac and respiratory motion still degrades the sensitivity of the method and hence metabolite detection. Some techniques for reducing this problem have recently emerged, however a compromise between feasible scan duration and easy implementation of these techniques in a clinical scanner has not been reached yet. In this study we demonstrate feasible single breath-hold ¹H-MR spectroscopy in the human heart at 3 T, obtaining one unsuppressed-water spectrum and three metabolite spectra, which allowed reliable quantification of fat as percentage of water content in the myocardium of healthy volunteers.