Three‐dimensional, 2.5‐minute, 7T phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging of the human heart using concentric rings

A three‐dimensional (3D), density‐weighted, concentric rings trajectory (CRT) magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) sequence is implemented for cardiac phosphorus ((31)P)‐MRS at 7 T. The point‐by‐point k‐space sampling of traditional phase‐encoded chemical shift imaging (CSI) sequences severely restricts the minimum scan time at higher spatial resolutions. Our proposed CRT sequence implements a stack of concentric rings, with a variable number of rings and planes spaced to optimise the density of k‐space weighting. This creates flexibility in acquisition time, allowing acquisitions substantially faster than traditional phase‐encoded CSI sequences, while retaining high signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR). We first characterise the SNR and point‐spread function of the CRT sequence in phantoms. We then evaluate it at five different acquisition times and spatial resolutions in the hearts of five healthy participants at 7 T. These different sequence durations are compared with existing published 3D acquisition‐weighted CSI sequences with matched acquisition times and spatial resolutions. To minimise the effect of noise on the short acquisitions, low‐rank denoising of the spatiotemporal data was also performed after acquisition. The proposed sequence measures 3D localised phosphocreatine to adenosine triphosphate (PCr/ATP) ratios of the human myocardium in 2.5 min, 2.6 times faster than the minimum scan time for acquisition‐weighted phase‐encoded CSI. Alternatively, in the same scan time, a 1.7‐times smaller nominal voxel volume can be achieved. Low‐rank denoising reduced the variance of measured PCr/ATP ratios by 11% across all protocols. The faster acquisitions permitted by 7‐T CRT (31)P‐MRSI could make cardiac stress protocols or creatine kinase rate measurements (which involve repeated scans) more tolerable for patients without sacrificing spatial resolution.