Single-voxel spectroscopy for quantitation of myocardial metabolites

A magnetic resonance imaging system comprising:

• a magnet system configured to generate a polarizing magnetic field about at least a portion of a subject;
• a plurality of gradient coils configured to apply at least one gradient field to the polarizing magnetic field;
• a radio frequency (RF) system configured to apply an excitation field to the subject and to acquire magnetic resonance (MR) data from the subject;
• and
• a processing unit to execute program code to cause the system to:
• apply double inversion recovery preparation pulses to the subject during a first R-R interval from a first R peak to a second R peak;
• apply a plurality of localization pulses to a portion of the subject during a second R-R interval from the second R peak to a third R peak, wherein application of the plurality of localization pulses is triggered by elapsing of a first delay time from the second R peak, the first delay time determined to substantially null a blood signal emitted from the portion of the subject;
• acquire MR data from the portion of the subject;
• and
• determine a quantity of one or more metabolites in the region of interest based on the acquired MR data.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program code executable by one or more processing units to cause a computing system to:

• apply double inversion recovery preparation pulses to the subject during a first R-R interval from a first R peak to a second R peak;
• apply a plurality of localization pulses to a portion of the subject during a second R-R interval from the second R peak to a third R peak, wherein application of the plurality of localization pulses is triggered by elapsing of a first delay time from the second R peak, the first delay time determined to substantially null a blood signal emitted from the portion of the subject;
• acquire MR data from the portion of the subject;
• and
• determine a quantity of one or more metabolites in the region of interest based on the acquired MR data.