Influence of Breathing on the Measurement of Lipids in the Myocardium by H-1 MR Spectroscopy

The myocardium examination by MR spectroscopy is very challenging due to movements caused by the cardiac rhythm and breathing. The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of breathing on the quantitative measurement of lipid/water ratios in different groups of volunteers and different measuring protocols. We examined the lipid content of myocardium at 3T using the proton single voxel spectroscopy. Three protocols (free breathing, breath hold and the use of respiratory navigator) controlled by ECG were used for the examination of 42 adult volunteers including 14 free divers. Spectra were evaluated using jMRUI software. An average content of lipids in the healthy interventricular septum, gained by all protocols was equal to 0.6 %, which is in agreement with other published data. Based on the quality of examinations and the highest technical success, the best protocol seems to be the one containing a respiratory navigator since it is more acceptable by patients. Based on our results and the literature data we can conclude that MR spectroscopy is able to distinguish patients from controls only if their myocardial lipid content is higher than 1.6 % (mean value of lipids plus two standard deviations).