Abstract #1654

Diffusion Tensor Spectroscopy of NAA and Water in the Corpus Callosum of the Human Brain at 7 Tesla

Emily Turner Wood^1,2, Daniel S. Reich^2,3, Jonathan A. Farrell^3,4, Joseph S. Gillen⁴, Peter B. Barker³, Itamar Ronen⁵

¹Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²NeuroImmunology Branch (NINDS), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States; ³Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁴F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁵Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

Diffusion tensor spectroscopy (DTS) combines features of DTI and spectroscopy to provide information about the diffusion of intracellular metabolites and therefore specific information about tissue microstructure and health. We compare the diffusion properties of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and water at two locations in the corpus callosum at 7T. Subjects were scanned at 7T with a 32-channel head coil using a DTS sequence that incorporated bipolar diffusion gradients within a point-resolved spectroscopic (PRESS) sequence. We demonstrate high resolution spectra and diffusion values consistent with previous reports at lower fields, demonstrating the feasibility of DTS at 7T to quantify a range of metabolites.