In-Vivo Localized Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in Small Animals Using Parallel Spatially Selective Excitation of Arbitrarily Shaped Volumes

Peter Ullmann¹, Johannes T. Schneider¹, Sarah R. Herrmann¹, Wolfgang Ruhm¹

Segmented parallel excitation (PEX) offers great potential for localized magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) by allowing the excitation of arbitrarily shaped voxels which can be used to mitigate partial-volume effects and to increase SNR. In this study PEX-based spectroscopy was performed in a rat brain in vivo to assess the applicability of PEX for high-field small-animal MRS and to compare it to conventional selection methods. Results obtained at 9.4 T demonstrate that complex-shaped voxels adapted to the brain anatomy can be excited with good spatial selectivity and that spectra can be acquired thereof with improved SNR compared to cuboid-shaped spectroscopy voxels.