Motivation: At ultra-high magnetic fields (UHF), shortened T₂ relaxation times of water and metabolites necessitate efficient magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) sequences like STEAM and LASER. Goal(s): To compare the neurochemical profiles obtained using LASER and STEAM sequences in the mouse brain at 11.7 T. Approach: Short echo-time LASER (TE = 16.75 ms) and STEAM (TE/TM = 2.7/10 ms) MRS data were acquired from the caudate-putamen region in nine adult female C57BL/6 mice. Results: Neurochemical profiles from both sequences were highly correlated (r = 0.97), with LASER showing a twofold increase in SNR compared to STEAM. Impact: LASER's higher SNR can reduce scan time in preclinical studies at UHF, enabling more efficient data acquisition and facilitating advanced applications like dynamic MRS and neurochemical profiling of smaller brain structures.
Abaei et al. (Tue,) studied this question.