Feasibility of localized, 1H decoupled natural abundance 13C-MRS of human brain at 7T using double tuned array coils and polarization transfer

The inherent low sensitivity of ¹³C-MRS makes detection of natural abundance metabolites in human brain challenging. We aimed to demonstrate that double-tuned array coils are particularly well-suited for ¹³C-MRS studies in vivo, as they provide high sensitivity and high transmit efficiency over a large FOV. To further enhance the SNR, DEPT sequence was used to transfer polarization from ¹H to ¹³C, as well as WALTZ-16 ¹H-decoupling, all within FDA guidelines. Natural abundance metabolites such as glutamate, glutamine, NAA and creatine were successfully detected and decoupled in 30 minutes acquisition time, showing strong efficiency and sensitivity of our measurement setup.