GABA quantification in human anterior cingulate cortex

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human brain. It has been shown that altered GABA concentration plays an important role in a variety of psychiatric and neurological disorders. The main purpose of this study was to propose a combination of PRESS and MEGA-PRESS acquisitions for absolute GABA quantification and to compare GABA estimations obtained using total choline (tCho), total creatine (tCr), and total N-acetyl aspartate (tNAA) as the internal concentration references with water referenced quantification. The second aim was to demonstrate the fitting approach of MEGA-PRESS spectra with QuasarX algorithm using a basis set of GABA, glutamate, glutamine, and NAA in vitro spectra. Thirteen volunteers were scanned with the MEGA-PRESS sequence at 3T. Interleaved water referencing was used for quantification, B(0) drift correction and to update the carrier frequency of RF pulses in real time. Reference metabolite concentrations were acquired using a PRESS sequence with short TE (30 ms) and long TR (5000 ms). Absolute concentration were corrected for cerebrospinal fluid, gray and white matter water fractions and relaxation effects. Water referenced GABA estimations were significantly higher compared to the values obtained by metabolite references. We conclude that QuasarX algorithm together with the basis set of in vitro spectra improves reliability of GABA+ fitting. The proposed GABA quantification method with PRESS and MEGA-PRESS acquisitions enables the utilization of tCho, tCr, and tNAA as internal concentration references. The use of different concentration references have a good potential to improve the reliability of GABA estimation.