Purpose: To develop 2D 1H-MRS measurement sequences for the evaluation of bone marrow lipids, and to assess these measurement sequences in healthy and diseased bone marrow.
Materials and methods: Single-voxel localized variants of COSY and DQF-COSY 2D 1H-MRS sequences were developed for use at 1.5 T to investigate the biochemical composition of human bone marrow in vivo. The performance of each sequence was initially tested in vitro using lipid phantoms. An unsaturated lipid proton index was developed to interrogate the degree of unsaturation within the triacylglyceride (TAG) acyl chains. Localized 2D 1H-MRS data were obtained from the bone marrow of healthy controls (N = 6), patients presenting with acute leukemia (N = 6) and patients with acute leukemia in remission (N = 4).
Results: The COSY and DQF-COSY data recorded from all subject cohorts were similar, and the unsaturated lipid proton index did not reveal significant differences between patient groups. Variations in water content and measured relaxation times showed minor differences between the measurement groups.
Conclusions: No significant differences were observed in the spectra obtained from bone marrow using the 2D 1H-MRS sequences. A novel unsaturated lipid proton index was developed.
(c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.