This proposal describes a method to acquire high resolution magnetic resonance spectra from previously inaccessible organs. In most organs, inhomogeneity makes the assignment of peaks to chemical components difficult and spurious, but intermolecular zero quantum coherences (iZQCs) are insensitive to inhomogeneity. iZQCs are unique in that they give very high resolution spectra in inhomogenous samples, such as human tissue. Resolution enhancement in vivo, however, has proven elusive. Our results indicate that this is due to physiological fluctuations during the relatively slow acquisition of the iZQC signal. This has motivated us to develop a new fast acquisition method for iZQCs which will allow us to take many averages to mute the vagaries of these physiological fluctuations. We present this sequence, along with preliminary results acquired on phantoms for up to 31-fold speedup. This proposal outlines our method for progressing to still faster acquisitions and other improvements, such as water suppression, that will allow us to develop this into a robust technique in vivo.
| Branca, R T; Galiana, G; Warren, W S (2008) Enhanced nonlinear magnetic resonance signals via square wave dipolar fields. J Chem Phys 129:054502 |
| Galiana, Gigi; Branca, Rosa T; Jenista, Elizabeth R et al. (2008) Accurate temperature imaging based on intermolecular coherences in magnetic resonance. Science 322:421-4 |
