Jurgen E. Schneider1, Hannah Barnes1, Stefan Neubauer1, Peter Jezzard2
1Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxon, UK; 2FMRIB Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxon, UK
Good magnetic field homogeneity is essential for in vivo 1H-MRS, but is particularly difficult to achieve in the heart. We implemented an automated cardiac shim approach in mice at 9.4T to aid routine metabolic phenotype characterization of normal and genetically modified mouse hearts at ultra-high magnetic fields. We demonstrated in this pilot study that the automated approach reproducibly optimized the B0-field and subsequently allowed for a successful detection of cardiac 1H-metabolites. Our work represents an important step towards increased ease, user-friendliness and applicability of cardiac MRS in vivo.