Quantification of Glutamate and Glutamine using CT-PRESS at 3T

Introduction Glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln) are two major neurochemicals in the central nervous system. Quantifying Glu and Gln in vivo using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has been of particular interest to basic science for understanding the Glu/Gln component of the Krebs cycle and its alteration by neuropsychiatric disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy and alcoholism. However, quantification of Glu and Gln using conventional in vivo MRS techniques such as PRESS or STEAM at clinically available field strength, e.g. 1.5-3T, is difficult because of the multiplet structure of the coupled resonances and signal overlap.