[31P-MR spectroscopy of all regions of the human heart at 1.5 T with acquisition-weighted chemical shift imaging].

with acquisition-weighted Aim: Aim of this study was to show whether or not acquisition-weighted chemical shift imaging (AW-CSI) allows the determination of PCr and ATP in the lateral and posterior wall of the human heart at 1.5 T. Methods: 12 healthy volunteers were examined using a conventional chemical shift imaging (CSI) and an AW-CSI. The sequences differed only in the number of repetitions for each point in k space. A hanning function was used as filter function leading to 7 repetitions in the center of the k space and 0 in the corners. Thus, AW-CSI had the same resolution as the CSI sequence. The results for both sequences were analyzed using identically positioned voxels in the septal, anterior, lateral and posterior wall. Results: The determined averaged AW-CSI signal to noise ratios were higher for PCr by a factor of 1.3 and for ATP by 1.4 than those of CSI. The PCr/ATP ratios were higher by a factor of 1.2 -1.3 and showed a smaller standard deviation in all locations for AW-CSI. The mean PCr/ ATP ratios determined by AW-CSI of septal, lateral and posterior wall were almost identical (1.72 -1.76), while it was higher in the anterior wall (1.9). Conclusions: The reduced contamination in AW-CSI improves the signal to noise ratio and the determination of the PCr/ATP ratio in cardiac 31 P spectroscopy compared to CSI with the same resolution. The results in volunteers indicate that AW-CSI renders 31 P spectroscopy of the lateral and posterior wall of the human heart feasible for patient studies at 1.5 T.