Non-spin-echo 3D transverse hadamard encoded proton spectroscopic imaging in the human brain

A non-spin-echo multivoxel proton MR localization method based on three-dimensional transverse Hadamard spectroscopic imaging is introduced and demonstrated in a phantom and the human brain. Spatial encoding is achieved with three selective 90° radiofrequency pulses along perpendicular axes: The first two create a longitudinal ±M_Z Hadamard order in the volume of interest. The third pulse spatially Hadamard-encodes the ±M_Zs in the volume of interest in the third direction while bringing them to the transverse plane to be acquired immediately. The approaching-ideal point spread function of Hadamard encoding and very short acquisition delay yield signal-to-noise-ratios of 20 ± 8, 23 ± 9, and 31 ± 10 for choline, creatine, and N-acetylaspartate in the human brain at 1.5 T from 1 cm³ voxels in 21 min. The advantages of transverse Hadamard spectroscopic imaging are that unlike gradient (Fourier) phase-encoding: (i) the volume of interest does not need to be smaller than the field of view to prevent aliasing; (ii) the number of partitions in each direction can be small, 8, 4, or even 2 at no cost in point spread function; (iii) the volume of interest does not have to be contiguous; and (iv) the voxel profile depends on the available B₁ and pulse synthesis paradigm and can, therefore, at least theoretically, approach "ideal" "1" inside and "0" elsewhere.