Fast acquisition-weighted three-dimensional proton MR spectroscopic imaging of the human prostate

Abstract

The clinical application of 3D proton spectroscopic imaging (3D SI) of the human prostate requires a robust suppression of periprostatic lipid signal contamination, minimal intervoxel signal contamination, and the shortest possible measurement time. In this work, a weighted elliptical sampling of k‐space, combined with k‐space filtering and pulse repetition time (TR) reduction minimized lipid signals, intervoxel contamination, and measurement time. At 1.5 T, the MR‐visible prostate metabolites citrate, creatine, and choline can now be mapped over the entire human prostate with uncontaminated spherical voxels, with a volume down to 0.37 cm³, in measurement times of 7–15 min. Magn Reson Med 52:80–88, 2004.