Absolute Quantification of ATP and Other High Energy Phosphate Compounds in Cat Brain at 9.4T

¹CMRR, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA

Absolute quantification of metabolite concentrations noninvasively has been a long-standing challenge for many researchers in the in vivo NMR field. Despite substantial efforts and some progresses, it is generally believed that the accuracy of such quantification was limited due to the large systematic error introduced by various calibration techniques. After careful comparison of different calibration approaches reported in the literature for absolute quantification of high energy phosphate (HEP) concentrations using in vivo ³¹P MRS, we have come up with our own, improved experimental design which eliminates most systematic errors and provides reliable quantification results for ATP and other HEP compounds in cat brain at 9.4T.