Cardiac- versus diaphragm-based respiratory navigation for proton spectroscopy of the heart

• Published in: Magma (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 32; no. 2; pp. 259 - 268
• Main Authors: Gastl, Mareike, Peereboom, Sophie M., Fuetterer, Maximilian, Boenner, Florian, Kelm, Malte, Manka, Robert, Kozerke, Sebastian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.04.2019
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Computer Appl. in Life Sciences; Diaphragm - diagnostic imaging; Diaphragm - metabolism; Female; Health Informatics; Heart - diagnostic imaging; Humans; Imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - statistics & numerical data; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy - methods; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy - statistics & numerical data; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Movement; Myocardium - metabolism; Prospective Studies; Protons; Radiology; Research Article; Respiration; Respiratory-Gated Imaging Techniques - methods; Respiratory-Gated Imaging Techniques - statistics & numerical data; Solid State Physics; Young Adult; Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy; Respiratory motion compensation; Myocardial lipid metabolism; Magnetic resonance imaging
• ISSN: 0968-5243; 1352-8661
• DOI: 10.1007/s10334-018-0711-y

Objectives To study inter-individual differences of the relation between diaphragm and heart motion, the objective of the present study was to implement respiratory navigation on the heart and compare it against the established method of navigator gating on the diaphragm for single-voxel cardiac 1 H-MRS. Materials and methods 1 H-MRS was performed on a 1.5T system in 19 healthy volunteers of mixed age (range 24–75 years). Spectra were recorded in a 6–8 ml voxel in the ventricular septum using a PRESS (point-resolved spectroscopy) sequence and ECG gating. Water-unsuppressed data acquired with pencil beam navigation on the heart were compared to data with navigation on the diaphragm. Water-suppressed data were obtained to assess triglyceride-to-water ratios. Results Water phase and amplitude fluctuations for cardiac versus diaphragm navigation did not reveal significant differences. Both navigator positions provided comparable triglyceride-to-water ratios and gating efficiencies (coefficient of variation (CoV) 7.0%). The cardiac navigator showed a good reproducibility (CoV 5.2%). Discussion Respiratory navigation on the heart does not convey an advantage over diaphragm-based navigator gating for cardiac 1 H-MRS, but also no disadvantage. Consequently, cardiac and diaphragm respiratory navigation may be used interchangeably.