Motivation: 2H and 31P MRSI provide relevant biomarkers, yet suffer from long scan time, low sensitivity and hardware swaps. With a novel setup, hardware swaps are avoided, facilitating interleaved scanning of 31P and 2H metabolites. Goal(s): The goal of this study was to design the novel hardware and assess the feasibility of gaining SNR using an interleaved 31P and 2H MRSI acquisition. Approach: Lossless filters were developed to merge the 2H and 31P setups and were tested on a healthy volunteer. Results: Interleaved scanning is possible and increases SNR of 31P and 2H signals in the liver. Impact: Lossless RF filters enable interleaved 31P and 2H MRSI acquisitions employing a double tuned bore coil and body receive array. This results in substantially improved SNR of metabolite signals from both nuclei, obtained in less examination time.
Stam et al. (Tue,) studied this question.