Residual quadrupolar couplings observed in 7 Tesla deuterium MR spectra of skeletal muscle

PURPOSE: Deuterium metabolic imaging could potentially be used to investigate metabolism in skeletal muscle noninvasively. However, skeletal muscle is a tissue with a high degree of spatial organization. In this study, we investigated the effect of incomplete motional averaging on the naturally abundant deuterated water signal in 7 Tesla deuterium spectra of the lower leg muscles and the dependence on the angle between the muscle fibers and the main magnetic field B(0), as determined by DTI. METHODS: Natural abundance deuterium MRSI measurements of the right lower leg muscles were performed at 7 Tesla. Three subjects were scanned in a supine position, with the right leg parallel with the B(0) field. One subject was scanned twice; during the second scan, the subject was laying on his right side and the right knee was bent such that the angle between the right lower leg and B(0) was approximately 45°. DTI was performed in the same subjects in the same positions at 3 Tesla to determine muscle fiber angles. RESULTS: We observed splittings in the natural abundance deuterated water signal. The size of the splittings varied between different muscles in the lower leg but were mostly similar among subjects for each muscle. The splittings depended on the orientation of the muscle fibers with respect to the main magnetic field B(0). CONCLUSION: Partial molecular alignment in skeletal muscle leads to residual deuteron quadrupolar couplings in deuterated water, the size of which depends on the angle between the muscle fibers and B(0).