Improving estimates of brain metabolite concentrations in MR spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) through MRI content

Author(s)

Fontolan, Juliana ; Pereira, Danilo ; Souza, Roberto ; Appenzeller, Simone ; Rittner, Leticia ; Gimi, B ; Krol, A

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: MEDICAL IMAGING 2019: BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS IN MOLECULAR, STRUCTURAL, AND FUNCTIONAL IMAGING; v. 10953, p. 8-pg., 2019-01-01.

Abstract

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has been widely used for studying metabolic changes in rheumatic, neurodegenerative diseases and several other types of pathologies. Nevertheless, the accurate measurement of brain metabolite concentrations is still problematic and challenging, specially for multivoxel MR Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) data. There is a collection of artifacts and spectra are acquired from a region containing mixed tissues: white matter (WM), grey matter (GM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) composition. However, the studies are interested in analyzing metabolite changes in a particular brain tissue or structure. Therefore, our work proposes a pipeline for automatic selection of spectra of interest, a subset of spectra from MRSI acquisitions based on MRI content analysis and spectral quality metrics. The proposed pipeline helps to improve multivoxel spectroscopy analysis and estimates of metabolite concentrations, by eliminating spectra outside the tissue or structure of interest and identifying noisy spectra. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/07559-3 - BRAINN - The Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology
• Grantee: Fernando Cendes
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers - RIDC