Human brain MR spectroscopy thermometry using metabolite aqueous-solution calibrations

• PURPOSE: To estimate absolute brain temperature using proton MR spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) and mean brain-body temperature difference of healthy human volunteers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Chemical shift difference between temperature-dependent water spectral line position and temperature-stable metabolite spectral reference was used for the estimations of absolute brain temperature. Temperature calibrations constants were obtained from the spectra of the N-acetyl aspartate (NAA line at approximately 2.0 ppm), glycero-phosphocholine (GPC line at approximately 3.2 ppm), and creatine (Cr line at approximately 3.0 ppm) aqueous solutions with pH values within physiologically pertinent ranges. Single-voxel PRESS sequence (TR/TE 2000/80 ms) was used for this purpose. Brain temperature was determined by averaging the temperatures computed from water-Cho, water-Cr, and water-NAA chemical shift differences. RESULTS: The mean brain temperature of 18 healthy volunteers was 38.1 +/- 0.4 degrees C and mean brain-body (rectal) temperature difference was 1.3 +/- 0.4 degrees C. CONCLUSION: Improved accuracy of the temperature constants and averaging the temperatures computed from water-Cho, water-Cr, and water-NAA chemical shift differences increased the reliability of the brain temperature estimations.

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