Determining the in vivo transverse relaxation time of GABA in the human brain at 7T

J Magn Reson Imaging. 2013 Nov;38(5):1224-9. doi: 10.1002/jmri.23979. Epub 2012 Dec 13.

Abstract

Purpose: To measure in vivo transverse relaxation times (T2 ) of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at 7T using the experimental spectral-editing method.

Materials and methods: Experiments were performed at 7T in a 10 mM GABA phantom to determine the intrinsic TE-dependence of the edited signal. Then the same method was applied with editing-based suppression of coedited macromolecular signals to five healthy volunteers to determine T2 of GABA in vivo.

Results: From in vivo data acquired at multiple echo times, the in vivo GABA T2 relaxation time was estimated to be 63 ± 19 msec.

Conclusion: We present a measurement of the T2 of edited GABA signal at 7T by first using phantom measurements to determine the echo time-dependence of edited signal. The method is purely experimental and does not rely on prior knowledge of coupling constants or simulation of realistic experiments. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2013;38:1224-1229. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: 7T; GABA; T2; editing; magnetic resonance spectroscopy; transverse relaxation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Algorithms*
  • Brain Chemistry*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / instrumentation
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / methods*
  • Male
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / analysis*
  • gamma-Aminobutyric Acid / chemistry*

Substances

  • gamma-Aminobutyric Acid