Correlation between Metabolite Peak Area Ratios on the Influence of Poor Shimming by $^1H$ MR Spectroscopy

Using 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), we quantitatively evaluated correlation representing linear relationship between the metabolite peak area ratios associated with poor shimming conditions. The inadequate shimming due to linear shim offsets directly affected overall MR spectral quality as well as peak area for each metabolite. Three major peaks such as N-acetylaspartate (NAA), creatine (Cr,) choline (Cho) were used as a reference for data analysis. Despite considerable variations of metabolite peak area, a significant correlation between the metabolite peak area ratios relative to Cr was established while the correlation between the peak area ratios relative to Cho and NAA was not. The present study suggested that metabolite peak area ratios based on the metabolite of Cr could be an acceptable quantification method even under the poor shimming in clinical MRS examination.