Fast multivoxel two-dimensional spectroscopic imaging at 3 T

The utility of multivoxel two-dimensional chemical shift imaging in the clinical environment will ultimately be determined by the imaging time and the metabolite peaks that can be detected. Different k-space sampling schemes can be characterized by their minimum required imaging time. The use of spiral-based readout gradients effectively reduces the minimum scan time required due to simultaneous data acquisition in three k-space dimensions (k_x, k_y and k_f2). A 3-T spiral-based multivoxel two-dimensional spectroscopic imaging sequence using the PRESS excitation scheme was implemented. Good performance was demonstrated by acquiring preliminary in vivo data for applications, including brain glutamate imaging, metabolite T₂ quantification and high-spatial-resolution prostate spectroscopic imaging. All protocols were designed to acquire data within a 17-min scan time at a field strength of 3 T.