Absolute Quantification Of Brain Metabolite Concentration In Precentral Gyrus And Hippocampus Of Healthy Adults Using Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy And LCModel

Background: In vivo proton MRS allows the noninvasive evaluation of cerebral metabolic patterns in both healthy subjects and patients with various brain diseases. Absolute quantification is a more objective, accurate approach and capable of helping to establish quantitative basis for studying neurochemistry in vivo. Precentral gyrus and hippocampus are hot issues in medical field, and considered to be associated with many diseases.Objective: To study the metabolic characteristics and concentrations of precentral gyrus and hippocampus using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy with LCModel software.Methods: 1H-MRS data of 14 healthy adults were collected by GE 1.5T MR scanner, using stimulated-echo acquisition mode (STEAM) sequence with echo time (TE) of 20 ms and repetition time (TR) of 3000 ms. The voxels were located over the left precentral gyrus and hippocampus. The data of spectra were post-processed using LCModel software. Absolute metabolic concentrations of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), total creatine (tCr), total choline (tCho), myoinositol (mI), Glx (glutamate [Glu] + glutamine [Gln]) were measured.Results: There were significantly lower NAA level and higher Cho and MI in hippocampus than in precentral gyrus. No significant differences for Cr and GLX concentrations were observed in these two locations. Linear regression analysis showed a linear relation between NAA and Cr concentrations in precentral gyrus and hippocampus.Conclusion: There are differences of the metabolites between precentral gyrus and hippocampus. There are linear correlations between some metabolites and Cr in precentral gyrus and hippocampus.