Detection of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) by longitudinal scalar order difference editing

Two novel spectral editing techniques for the in vivo detection of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) are presented. The techniques rely on the generation of longitudinal scalar order (LSO) coherences, which in combination with J-difference editing results in the selective detection of GABA. The utilization of LSO coherences makes the editing sequences insensitive to phase and frequency instabilities. Furthermore, the spectral editing selectivity can be increased independent of the echo time, thereby opening the echo time for state-of-the-art water suppression and/or spatial localization techniques. The performance of the LSO editing techniques is theoretically demonstrated with product operator calculations and density matrix simulations and experimentally evaluated on phantoms in vitro and on human brain in vivo.