A comparative study of short‐ and long‐TE 1H MRS at 3 T for in vivo detection of 2‐hydroxyglutarate in brain tumors

2-Hydroxyglutarate (2HG) is produced in gliomas with mutations of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) 1 and 2. The 1H resonances of the J-coupled spins of 2HG are extensively overlapped with signals from other metabolites. Here, we report a comparative study at 3 T of the utility of the point-resolved spectroscopy sequence with a standard short TE (35 ms) and a long TE (97 ms), which had been theoretically designed for the detection of the 2HG 2.25-ppm resonance. The performance of the methods is evaluated using data from phantoms, seven healthy volunteers and 22 subjects with IDH-mutated gliomas. The results indicate that TE = 97 ms provides higher detectability of 2HG than TE = 35 ms, and that this improved capability is gained when data are analyzed with basis spectra that include the effects of the volume localizing radiofrequency and gradient pulses. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.