Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 15, 2026

Author Spotlight: Exploring Intrinsically Disordered Protein Dynamics Through NMR Relaxation Experiments
Published on: November 1, 2024
Forecasting the quality of water-suppressed 1 H MR spectra based on a single-shot water scan
Sreenath P Kyathanahally1,2, Roland Kreis1
1Department of Clinical Research and Institute of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Purpose:
To investigate whether an initial non-water-suppressed acquisition that provides information about the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and linewidth is enough to forecast the maximally achievable final spectral quality and thus inform the operator whether the foreseen number of averages and achieved field homogeneity is adequate.
Methods:
A large range of spectra with varying SNR and linewidth was simulated and fitted with popular fitting programs to determine the dependence of fitting errors on linewidth and SNR. A tool to forecast variance based on a single acquisition was developed and its performance evaluated on simulated and in vivo data obtained at 3 Tesla from various brain regions and acquisition settings.
Results:
A strong correlation to real uncertainties in estimated metabolite contents was found for the forecast values and the Cramer-Rao lower bounds obtained from the water-suppressed spectra.
Conclusion:
It appears to be possible to forecast the best-case errors associated with specific metabolites to be found in model fits of water-suppressed spectra based on a single water scan. Thus, nonspecialist operators will be able to judge ahead of time whether the planned acquisition can possibly be of sufficient quality to answer the targeted clinical question or whether it needs more averages or improved shimming. Magn Reson Med 78:441-451, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
More Related Videos
12:47Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for the Identification of Multiple Phosphorylations of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
Published on: December 27, 2016
08:48High-Resolution Neutron Spectroscopy to Study Picosecond-Nanosecond Dynamics of Proteins and Hydration Water
Published on: April 28, 2022
Related Concept Videos
2D NMR: Heteronuclear Single-Quantum Correlation Spectroscopy (HSQC)
¹H NMR: Interpreting Distorted and Overlapping Signals
As Δν decreases and the signals move closer, the doublets appear increasingly distorted. The intensities of the inner lines increase at the cost of those of the outer lines as the signals are...
NMR Spectrometers: Resolution and Error Correction
2D NMR: Overview of Heteronuclear Correlation Techniques
NMR Spectroscopy Of Amines
¹³C NMR: ¹H–¹³C Decoupling
A broadband decoupling technique is used to simplify these complex, sometimes overlapping, signals. Broadband decoupling relies on a...