Abstract:
Objective To explore the feasibility of the 3.0T brain magnetic resonance single-voxel point-resolved spectroscopy (PRESS SV) fast imaging sequence under different parameter conditions and to compare it with the conventional PRESS sequence.
Methods Prospectively, 200 patients who underwent brain MR scans at the Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University from September 2022 to August 2024 were selected, including 114 males and 86 females, with an average age of (47.12 ± 11.47) years. Based on three parameter combinations—measured linewidth, total number of scans, and echo time (TE)—the patients were retrospectively divided into 5 groups: ① Control group: small linewidth conventional short TE group (39 cases); ② Observation groups: large linewidth fast short TE group (39 cases), large linewidth fast long TE group (38 cases), small linewidth fast short TE group (40 cases), small linewidth fast long TE group (44 cases). To verify the influence of parameter variables, the control group underwent two conventional PRESS SV sequence scans; the observation groups underwent fast PRESS SV scans followed by an additional conventional PRESS SV scan as a control. The differences in metabolite SNR values and semi-quantitative values obtained from the two scans in each group were analyzed; Logistic regression analysis was performed on the parameters affecting image interpretation.
Results ① The differences in metabolite semi-quantitative values between the two scans in all 5 groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05). ② The mean Cr SNR of the fast PRESS SV sequence was approximately (57.11±4.07)% of that of the conventional sequence, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). ③ For the large linewidth fast PRESS SV sequence with a voxel size of 4.5 cm3, the image quality was poor, and the rate of uninterpretable images was 1.5−2 times that of the conventional sequence. ④ Logistic regression analysis showed that when the voxel size decreased from 8 cm3 to 4.5 cm3, the risk of uninterpretable images increased by 3.45 times; when the linewidth was ≥9 Hz, the risk increased by 2.09 times; and when TE=144 ms, the risk increased by 2.08 times.
Conclusion The 3.0T brain fast PRESS SV sequence can replace the conventional PRESS SV sequence for clinical scanning, shortening the scan time; when the linewidth is ≥9 Hz, it is recommended to use a voxel size of 8 cm3 or a TE of 35 ms to improve the success rate of imaging.