RESUMEN
PURPOSE: To evaluate the utomated 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) method for a routine clinical use, various regions of the normal human brain were examined for regional variations, the reproducibility, and thequality control of the spectral data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Localized 1H-MRS was performed in a GE 1.5T SIGNAMRI/MRS system using the automated method(PROton brain Exam : PROBE). Six regions of the human brain from normal volunteers (N=25, age=23-65) were examined : Occipital gray matter, parietal white matter, frontal white matter, pons, cerebellum, and basal ganglia regions. STEAM was used as the localization method with the following parameters : TE=30 msec, TR=3.0 sec, AVG=48 AVG, NEX=2, Spectral Width (SW)=2500 Hz, Size (SI)=2048 points (2K),and the size of voxel=7-9 ml, The reproducibility and the quality control of the spectral date were evaluated. RESULTS: For the 6 regions, the regional variation by the spectral patterns and the metabolites ratios relative to creatine was well demonstrated. Rates of the auto prescan success and the percentages of obtaining the acceptable quality spectra were high in the parietal white matter, occipital gray matter, and basal gangliaregions, and low in the frontal white matter and pons regions. CONCLUSION: PROBE is a highly practical as well asreliable method to produce reproducible quality spectra that represent the regional metabolic variations in the human brain, PROBE can be used as a single spectroscopic exam or as an additional series to a routine brain MRI exam, which takes less than 10 minutes for acquiaition of one spectrum. In order to obtain good quality spectra, agood quality control scheme of the MR instrument is mandatory.