Ronald Ouwerkerk1, Ahmed Medhat Gharib1, Monica Skarulis2, Roderic I. Pettigrew1, 3
1Metabolic Imaging Branch, NIDDK/NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States; 2CLINICAL ENDOCRINE SECT, NIH/NIDDK, Bethesda, MD, United States; 3NIH/NIBIB, Bethesda, MD, United States
Navigator gated single volume 1H-MRS was used after B0 field mapping and manual shimming to obtain high quality liver spectra that allowed quantification of choline and glycogen, important metabolic markers in humans. Narrow line widths allowed more selective water suppression, avoiding saturation of glycogen. The T2s of glycogen, choline water and lipid were measured and used to estimate the absolute concentrations of metabolites. Average concentration of MRS visible choline compounds in eleven healthy volunteers was 16.94.5 mmol/kg ww; the concentration of glycogen glycosyl units was 7836 mmol/kg ww. In-vivo measurement of liver choline and glycogen with 1H-MRS can be an important tool for the study of metabolic disorders.