[Feasibility Study of Rapid Single-Voxel Point-Resolved Spectroscopy in 3.0 T Brain MRI]

To explore the feasibility of the 3.0 T brain magnetic resonance single-voxel point-resolved spectroscopy (PRESS SV) fast imaging sequence under different parameter conditions and to compare it with the conventional PRESS sequence.

Retrospectively, 200 patients who underwent brain magnetic resonance scans at the Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from September 2022 to August 2024 were selected, including 114 males and 86 females, with an average age of (47.12±11.47) years. Based on three parameter combinations-measured linewidth, total number of scans, and echo time (TE)-the patients were retrospectively divided into 5 groups: ①Control groups: small linewidth conventional short TE PRESS group (39 cases); ②Observation groups: large linewidth fast short TE PRESS group (39 cases), large linewidth fast long TE PRESS group (38 cases), small linewidth fast short TE PRESS group (40 cases), small linewidth fast long TE PRESS group (44 cases). To verify the influence of parameter variables, the control group underwent two conventional PRESS SV sequence scans; the observation groups underwent fast PRESS SV scans followed by an additional conventional PRESS SV scan as a control. The differences in metabolite SNR values and semi-quantitative values obtained from the two scans in each group were analyzed; Logistic regression analysis was performed on the parameters affecting image interpretation.

①The differences in metabolite semi-quantitative values between the two scans in all 5 groups were not statistically significant ( P＞0.05). ②The mean Cr SNR of the fast PRESS SV sequence was approximately (57.11±4.07)% of that of the conventional sequence, and the difference was statistically significant ( P＜0.05). ③For the large linewidth fast PRESS SV sequence with a voxel size of 4.5 cm ³, the image quality was poor, the rate of uninterpretable spectra was 1.5 to 2 times that of the conventional sequence. ④Logistic regression analysis showed that when the voxel size decreased from 8 cm ³ to 4.5 cm ³, the risk of uninterpretable images increased by 3.45 times; when the linewidth was ≥9 Hz, the risk increased by 2.09 times; and when TE=144 ms, the risk increased by 2.08 times.

The 3.0 T brain fast PRESS SV sequence can replace the conventional PRESS SV sequence for clinical scanning, shortening the scan time; when the linewidth is ≥9 Hz, it is recommended to use a voxel size of 8 cm ³ or a TE of 35 ms to improve the success rate of imaging.