2D Diffusion Weighted Chemical Shift Imaging of Brain Metabolites at 7T

Aranee Techawiboonwong¹, Hermien Kan², Maarten Versluis², Andrew Webb², Itamar Ronen²

Diffusion-weighted spectroscopy of brain metabolites provides microstructural information specific to compartmental geometry in which they reside. So far, all DWS studies have been performed as single volume scans where accurate calculations of metabolite diffusion properties requires proper phasing of individual spectra prior to averaging to avoid destructive signal summation. Here, we present for the first time a complete 2D-DW-CSI experiment of human brain metabolites which yield sensible maps of their diffusion properties. The techniques reliability is crucially enhanced using a navigator, which helps remove severe phase fluctuations induced by the diffusion gradients and correctly evaluate metabolite diffusion properties.