Localized double-quantum filter and correlation spectroscopy experiments

Problems with in vivo proton spectroscopy include strong water and lipid signals, and the very complicated structures of the spectra. Multiple-quantum experiments can be designed to overcome these difficulties. Using a volume selective refocusing technique, one can demonstrate how multiple-quantum experiments can be performed in a spatially localized manner. Rather than trying to integrate a localization procedure into a particular spectroscopy experiment itself, the approach here is to leave the basic experiment intact and to add a volume selective "block" to the end of the sequence. This "block" must, of course, preserve the integrity of the particular experiment. The volume selective refocusing method, presented here, does just this for a wide variety of proton NMR experiments. The advantage of this approach is that the analysis of the particular experiment is not changed. This is very important considering the complexity involved. Using this procedure, two very elementary multiple-quantum experiments have been performed on a 1.5-T whole-body scanner. These experiments are a localized double-quantum filter experiment (for water suppression) and a localized two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy experiment.