Apparent diffusion coefficients of 31P metabolites in the human calf muscle at 7 T

In this study, we aimed to measure the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) of major phosphorous metabolites in the human calf muscle at 7 T with a diffusion-weighted (DW)-STEAM sequence.

A DW-STEAM sequence with bipolar gradients was implemented at 7 T, and DW MR spectra were acquired in three orthogonal directions in the human calf muscle of six healthy volunteers (TE/TM/TR = 15 ms/750 ms/5 s) at three b-values (0, 800, and 1200 s/mm²). Frequency and phase alignments were applied prior to spectral averaging. Averaged DW MR spectra were analyzed with LCModel, and ADCs of ³¹P metabolites were estimated.

Four metabolites (phosphocreatine (PCr), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), inorganic phosphate (Pi) and glycerol phosphorylcholine (GPC)) were quantified at all b-values with mean CRLBs below 10%. The ADC values of PCr, ATP, Pi, and GPC were (0.24 ± 0.02, 0.15 ± 0.04, 0.43 ± 0.14, 0.40 ± 0.09) × 10^-3 mm²/s, respectively.

The ADCs of four ³¹P metabolites were successfully measured in the human calf muscle at 7 T, among which those of ATP, Pi and GPC were reported for the first time in humans. This study paves the way to investigate ³¹P metabolite diffusion properties in health and disease on the clinical MR scanner.