Jimin Ren1, Ivan Dimitrov1, A. Dean Sherry1, 2, Craig R. Malloy1, 3
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 2Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, United States; 3VA North Texas Health Care System, Dallas, TX, United States
Proton MR detection of low level of acetyl-carnitine (AcCtn) in skeletal muscle is limited by the contamination of dominant lipid signals. Lipid interference also makes spectral fitting difficult due to the irregular EMCL lineshape. In the current study, we utilize inversion-recovery technique to optimize the detection of AcCtn acetyl signal by eliminating the lipid contamination. The method is based on the T1 difference between acetyl signal (long T1) and the lipid signals (short T1) to null the lipid signals in the early phase of recovery process post-inversion, allowing a contamination-free acetyl signal to be obtained with a few minutes.