Improved prospective frequency correction for macromolecule-suppressed GABA editing with metabolite cycling at 3T

Purpose: To combine metabolite cycling with J-difference editing (MC MEGA) to allow for prospective frequency correction at each transient without additional acquisitions and compare it to water-suppressed MEGA-PRESS (WS MEGA) editing with intermittent prospective frequency correction. Methods: Macromolecule-suppressed gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)-edited experiments were performed in a phantom and in the occipital lobe (OCC) (n = 12) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) (n = 8) of the human brain. Water frequency consistency and average offset over acquisition time were compared. GABA multiplet patterns, signal intensities, and choline subtraction artifacts were evaluated. In vivo GABA concentrations were compared and related to frequency offset in the OCC. Results: MC MEGA was more stable with 21% and 32% smaller water frequency SDs in the OCC and mPFC, respectively. MC MEGA also had 39% and 40% smaller average frequency offsets in the OCC and mPFC, respectively. Phantom GABA multiplet patterns and signal intensities were similar. In vivo GABA concentrations were smaller in MC MEGA than in WS MEGA, with median (interquartile range) of 2.52 (0.27) and 2.29 (0.19) institutional units (i.u.), respectively in the OCC scans without prior DTI, and 0.99 (0.3) and 1.72 (0.5), respectively in the mPFC. OCC WS MEGA GABA concentrations, but not MC MEGA GABA concentrations were moderately correlated with frequency offset. mPFC WS MEGA spectra contained significantly more subtraction artifacts than MC MEGA spectra. Conclusion: MC MEGA is feasible and allows for prospective frequency correction at every transient. MC MEGA GABA concentrations were not biased by frequency offsets and contained less subtraction artifacts compared to WS MEGA.