Quantification of the neurochemical profile of the human putamen using STEAM MRS in a cohort of elderly subjects at 3 T and 7 T: Ruminations on the correction strategy for the tissue voxel composition

PLoS One. 2023 Jun 2;18(6):e0286633. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0286633. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

The aim of this work is to quantify the metabolic profile of the human putamen in vivo in a cohort of elderly subjects using single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. To obtain metabolite concentrations specific to the putamen, we investigated a correction method previously proposed to account for the tissue composition of the volume of interest. We compared the method with the conventional approach, which a priori assumes equal metabolite concentrations in GM and WM. Finally, we compared the concentrations acquired at 3 Tesla (T) and 7 T MRI scanners. Spectra were acquired from 15 subjects (age: 67.7 ± 8.3 years) at 3 T and 7 T, using an ultra-short echo time, stimulated echo acquisition mode sequence. To robustly estimate the WM-to-GM metabolite concentration ratio, five additional subjects were measured for whom the MRS voxel was deliberately shifted from the putamen in order to increase the covered amount of surrounding WM. The concentration and WM-to-GM concentration ratio for 16 metabolites were reliably estimated. These ratios ranged from ~0.3 for γ-aminobutyric acid to ~4 for N-acetylaspartylglutamate. The investigated correction method led to significant changes in concentrations compared to the conventional method, provided that the ratio significantly differed from unity. Finally, we demonstrated that differences in tissue voxel composition cannot fully account for the observed concentration difference between field strengths. We provide not only a fully comprehensive quantification of the neurochemical profile of the putamen in elderly subjects, but also a quantification of the WM-to-GM concentration ratio. This knowledge may serve as a basis for future studies with varying tissue voxel composition, either due to tissue atrophy, inconsistent voxel positioning or simply when pooling data from different voxel locations.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Brain* / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
  • Metabolome
  • Middle Aged
  • Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / methods
  • Putamen* / diagnostic imaging

Grants and funding

AG was supported in part by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG) [grant number - JFZ_18_02] (https://rustaveli.org.ge/geo). CEJD is supported by Clinician Scientist Program (CCSP), Faculty of Medicine, the University of Cologne (https://medfak.uni-koeln.de/en/), and is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG, FI 773/15-1) (https://www.dfg.de/en/). MS is supported by the Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung (grant number 2019_EKES.02) (https://www.ekfs.de/en). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.