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ABSTRACT: Nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) enhancements and relaxation times of 31P metabolites in human calf were measured in 12 volunteers (4 men and 8 women) at 1.5 T using a dual tuned four-ring birdcage. The NOE enhancements of inorganic phosphate (Pi), phosphocreatine (PCr), gamma-, alpha-, and beta-nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) from 19 measurements were 0.51 +/- 0.10, 0.64 +/- 0.03, 0.53 +/- 0.03, 0.56 +/- 0.08, and 0.47 +/- 0.05, respectively. The relaxation times were independent of proton irradiation and from 23 measurements were 3.49 +/- 0.35, 4.97 +/- 0.58, 4.07 +/- 0.36, 2.90 +/- 0.25, and 3.61 +/- 0.25 s for Pi, PCr, gamma-, alpha-, and beta-NTP, respectively. No significant differences between gender and age were observed for either NOE enhancements or relaxation times. Also, among nine volunteers, we observed no significant differences in T1 between the coupled and decoupled cases.
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 04/1995; 33(3):417-21. · 2.96 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: A method is proposed for carrying out chemical-shift imaging simultaneously on several nuclei (1H and 31P in this example), using a commercial clinical NMR imager fitted with a second RF channel and a dual-tuned birdcage coil to fit the human head. Nuclei of different gamma are examined at the same field of view by exciting each nucleus successively at times proportional to gamma during the same phase-encoding gradient waveform. Thus, each higher-gamma nucleus is exposed to a smaller area of the gradient. Additionally, since in vivo protons typically have a shorter T1 and roughly an order of magnitude higher sensitivity than phosphorus, it is possible to interleave 1H-only acquisitions between the simultaneous 1H, 31P observations while the lower-gamma nucleus relaxes. Consequently, additional information is obtained with either higher spatial resolution or greater sensitivity (more signal averaging) without lengthening the duration of the examination.
Journal of Magnetic Resonance Series B 06/1994; 104(1):26-33. · 2.53 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The four-ring birdcage resonator, a new class of dual-tuned birdcage resonators, is described. We report two configurations of the coil: the low-pass, high-pass (LP-HP) and the low-pass, low-pass (LP-LP), both of which can be operated in dual quadrature mode at 1.5 T. As head coils, both configurations exhibit greatly reduced tuning interactions between frequencies, permitting rapid, noniterative tuning. Compared with single-tuned, two-ring birdcage resonators of similar volume, the sensitivity and transmitter efficiencies of the resonators are better than 85% for the proton frequency and the same to within 5% for the phosphorus frequency. Circuit models have been developed to refine coil tuning and aid the calculation of B1 field contour plots. Both configurations have been used for integrated examinations involving acquisition of high-quality 1H images and 1H-decoupled 31P CSI spectra of the human head. A scaled-down version of the LP-LP configuration has been demonstrated for use with the human calf.
Journal of Magnetic Resonance Series B 03/1994; 103(2):103-14. · 2.53 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Proton-decoupled, 31P three-dimensional (3-D) chemical shift imaging (CSI) spectra have been acquired from the entire human brain using a new dual tuned resonator. The resonator operates in quadrature mode to provide improved sensitivity, excellent B1 homogeneity and reduced power deposition at both frequencies. Proton-decoupled and fully NOE enhanced, 31P spectra were acquired from normal volunteers using Waltz-4 proton decoupling with continuous wave bi-level excitation applied through a second radio frequency channel. Well resolved peaks in the phosphomonoester (PME) and phosphodiester regions were obtained from nonlocalized FIDs and spectra localized with 3-D CSI without processing for resolution enhancement. pH measurements made over large regions of the brain using the P(i) resonance show no significant variations (6.9 +/- 0.02) for a single individual. The improved spectral resolution and sensitivity of the PME resonances results in more well defined metabolite images of the PME peak region.
NMR in Biomedicine 6(3):173-80. · 3.21 Impact Factor