Chemical shift imaging without water suppression at 3 T

PurposeProton magnetic resonance spectroscopy without water suppression is possible but is hampered by the presence of sideband artifacts. The aim of this study was to develop a chemical shift imaging method without water suppression for clinical routine with reduced sideband artifacts.Materials and MethodsSpectra from ten healthy volunteers were acquired using a 3T (TimTrio, Siemens, Erlagen, Germany) scanner with a Point RESolved Spectroscopy sequence for volume selection. Postprocessing was performed in three steps: correcting the water peak position in all spectra (chemical shift correction), subtracting the Gaussian convolution of all free induction decay signals (FIDs) (water signal reduction), and subtracting the FID of a water phantom from the volunteer's FID signal (reduction of sidebands). For the postprocessing customized software was developed with Matlab 2007b.ResultsThe described technique provides spectra with reduced water signal and sidebands. Quantitative analysis showed that there is a good agreement between spectra obtained with water suppressing radiofrequency pulses and the new method. Moreover, spectra obtained with the new method do not need phase correction.ConclusionThe new method offers sufficient reduction of the water peak and sidebands. Its simplicity allows its use in clinical applications.