Abstract #0217

Improved Quantification of Choline in Breast MRS Using Dixon Imaging Water Referencing

Lenka Minarikova¹, Stephan Gruber¹, Wolfgang Bogner¹,², Katja Pinker-Domenig³, Siegfried Trattnig¹, Thomas Helbich³, Marek Chmelik¹

¹MR Center of Excellence, Department of Radiology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; ²Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; ³Division of Molecular and Gender Imaging, Department of Radiology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

We propose semi-quantitative total choline signal estimation in 3D MR spectroscopic imaging at 3 T in breasts with additional correction to water content for each voxel, using information extracted from Dixon imaging to correct SNR of tCho. Our water-referencing correction improves tCho signal amplitudes homogeneity throughout a phantom volume therefore; corrected signal values reflect more real tCho concentrations. Furthermore, spatial CSI matrix shift can considerably influence tCho SNR in patients data. Our method is able to compensate for deviations in matrix positioning, which can noticeably help in repeated measurements (e.g. therapy monitoring).