Gradient Induced Sideband Artifacts in non Water-Suppressed Proton CSI of the Human Brain at 9.4 T

Introduction: It has been shown that chemical shift imaging without water suppression offers several advantages, like the possibility to use the water signal for spectral corrections and for absolute quantification [1]. However, the unsuppressed spectra are hampered by gradient induced sidebands, which have to be removed before the quantification [2]. Despite known difficulties (shorter T2 and longer T1 relaxation times, larger B0 and B1 inhomogeneities), previous studies demonstrated that proton spectroscopy at ultra-high magnetic field is possible [3, 4]. The aim of this study was to verify the feasibility of short echo time proton CSI on the human brain without water suppression at the field strength of 9.4 T and to examine the influence of gradient induced sidebands on the measured spectra.