Improved PCr/ATP Ratio Mapping of the Human Head by Simultaneously Imaging of Multiple Spectral Peaks with InterLeaved Excitations and Flexible Twisted Projection Imaging Readout Trajectories (SIMPLE-FlexTPI) at 9.4 Tesla

Aiming Lu¹, Ian C. Atkinson¹, Keith R. Thulborn¹

Quantitative MR imaging of phosphocreatine (PCr) and ATP concentrations in human brain can provide useful information about the metabolic flux through the central high-energy metabolic pathways but are hindered by the low MR detection sensitivity of 31P. An efficient acquisition strategy, now termed SIMPLE-flexTPI has been used to simultaneously sample PCr and γ-ATP signals. By optimizing the acquisition software and hardware, significantly improved 31P imaging results on entire human head has been achieved at 9.4T. The PCr and γ-ATP images demonstrate meaningful resolution and SNR. The obtained PCr/γ-ATP ratios are in agreement with literature values.