Quantitative Comparison of 31P MRS Imaging Performances between 7T and 10.5T Human Scanners Using a Loop-dipole 31P-1H Probe

In vivo ³¹P MRS imaging (MRSI) is important for studying cerebral energy metabolism, intracellular NAD and redox ratio. However, it is challenging to achieve high spatiotemporal resolution owing to limited ³¹P sensitivity and low phosphorus metabolites concentration. We had demonstrated that ultrahigh field (UHF) could significantly improve the ³¹P-MRS sensitivity and spectral resolution. In this study, we designed and constructed a loop-dipole ³¹P-¹H probe, which could operate at 7T and 10.5T for quantitative comparison of ³¹P MRSI signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) between the two fields. We found that the apparent SNR at 10.5T was significantly higher than that of 7T.