Cerebral glucose quantification using 1H short-TE STEAM spectroscopy at 7T: Influence of macromolecule signals

The ability of conventional 1H short-TE STEAM spectroscopy at 7T was investigated to quantitate cerebral glucose. Spectra were analyzed using LCModel with the standard 7T STEAM basis set and with that plus macromolecule basis set. With the evaluation of Cramér-Rao lower bounds, the precision of glucose quantification reduced with the macromolecule basis set. Moreover, estimated glucose and taurine concentrations were shown to correlate for both analytical conditions. Thus, the quantification is not improved using the macromolecule basis set and may be more precise via detecting H1-α-glucose, which is free from spectral overlap.