Apparent diffusion coefficients of 31P metabolites in the human calf muscle at 7 T

PURPOSE: In this study, we aimed to measure the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) of major phosphorous metabolites in the human calf muscle at 7 T with a diffusion-weighted (DW)-STEAM sequence. METHODS: A DW-STEAM sequence with bipolar gradients was implemented at 7 T, and DW MR spectra were acquired in three orthogonal directions in the human calf muscle of six healthy volunteers (TE/TM/TR = 15 ms/750 ms/5 s) at three b-values (0, 800, and 1200 s/mm(2)). Frequency and phase alignments were applied prior to spectral averaging. Averaged DW MR spectra were analyzed with LCModel, and ADCs of (31)P metabolites were estimated. RESULTS: Four metabolites (phosphocreatine (PCr), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), inorganic phosphate (Pi) and glycerol phosphorylcholine (GPC)) were quantified at all b-values with mean CRLBs below 10%. The ADC values of PCr, ATP, Pi, and GPC were (0.24 ± 0.02, 0.15 ± 0.04, 0.43 ± 0.14, 0.40 ± 0.09) × 10(–3) mm(2)/s, respectively. CONCLUSION: The ADCs of four (31)P metabolites were successfully measured in the human calf muscle at 7 T, among which those of ATP, Pi and GPC were reported for the first time in humans. This study paves the way to investigate (31)P metabolite diffusion properties in health and disease on the clinical MR scanner. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10334-023-01065-3.