Spectrum of Metabolites

Whole¹ H MR spectrum of human brain tissue obtained using a spin-echo sequence (TE = 30 ms, TR = 5000 ms, VOI = 28 ml, 3 T). In the region of aliphatic protons metabolite signals with concentrations higher than 1 mM are well visible and are positioned above broad signal of macromolecules. The water signal is suppressed, nevertheless, the range of approximately 4.3–5.1 ppm is influenced by many artifacts and cannot be used for the inspection of the spectrum. The aromatic part of the spectrum contains signals of compounds with very low concentrations (in normal brains) such as phenylalanine, histidines, histamines, etc.