Single Voxel ¹H-MR Spectroscopy in the Human Spinal Cord at 3T -Preliminary Results

Purpose: ¹H-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy is a non-invasive technique that provides information on tissue metabolism and biochemistry. Because of technical difficulties, this method is rarely used in the spinal cord examination. The main goal of this study was to develop a routine protocol for MRS of intramedullary lesions. Material and methods: ¹H-MRS protocol was set on a group of healthy volunteers. 48 spectra were acquired in total. 30 of them were acquired in cervical spinal cord and the remaining (18 spectra) were acquired in the thoracic spinal cord. Results: In ¹H-MRS of the spinal cord one of the most important problem is small voxel size. Mean voxel size in this study was 7x9x29 mm - what is much smaller than in the brain examinations finally, almost 60% of spectra were of acceptable quality in volunteer examinations, what enabled the following patients’ examinations. Conclusions: Challenges of spinal cord spectroscopy were discussed and the ability of providing additional diagnostic information was proved.