Saipavitra Murali Manohar

Alumni of the Research Group MR Spectroscopy

Main Focus

  • My aim is to develop two dimensional 1H single voxel spectroscopic sequences and to understand their advantages and disadvantages at 9.4 T by quantifying the data and comparing it with 3 T.
  • Furthermore, to explore the two dimensional and the one dimensional spectra in the downfield and to assign the unknown peaks is of my interest.
  • On the clinical front, the goal is to provide the sequence and to set biomarkers for the MDD patients by quantifying the two dimensional spectroscopy data (CDS-QuaMRI)

1H Single Voxel Spectroscopy at 9.4 T and 3 T: Data Acquistion and Data Analysis

1H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) has gained importance in the clinical as well as research fields over the past few years as it is a non-invasive technique enabling us to identify and quantify several metabolites in the human brain, which aids in setting biomarkers for clinical decision making. There are several advantages of MRS at Ultra High Field (UHF >= 7 T) such as improved SNR and better spectral resolution which enables in better quantification of the metabolites. Overcoming the technical challenges such as B0 and B1+ inhomogeniety, higher chemical shift displacement and shorter T2 relaxation times, the aim is to exploit the advantages of the UHF. This can be done by establishing better sequence protocols and processing routines.

Also, the one-dimensional spectra thus acquired has spectral overlap which makes it difficult to differentiate various metabolites while quantifying. A distinct method to overcome this challenge is two-dimensional spectroscopy, which spreads the spectral information along two frequency axes1,2,3,4,5.  Therfore, a J-resolved Semi-LASER sequence with maximum-echo sampling(MES) scheme was developed for the application in human brain at 9.4T.

Well-distinguishable peaks with high SNR were observed from the two-dimensional spectrscopy data at 9.4 T. In addition to this, downfield peaks were also seen indicationg that it could be a potential method to help assigning the unknown peaks in the downfield.

Future work includes optimizing the sequence further considering the shorter T2 relaxation times at 9.4 T and quantifying the data using ProFit6 fitting tool.

  1. Lin M, Kumar A, et al,. Magn Reson Med 2014; 71(3):911-920.
  2. Thomas M, et al,. Magn Reson Med 2001; 46:58–67.
  3. Andronesi O, et al,. Magn Reson Med 2010; 64:1542–1556.
  4. Lange T, et ,. Magn Reson Med 2006; 56:1220–1228.
  5. Schulte R F, et al,. NMR Biomed 2006; 19(2): 264-270.
  6. Fuchs A, et al,. Magn Reson Med 2004; 71(2): 458-68.

Curriculum Vitae

Current

Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics

February 2016 – Present

Ph D Student

High-field Magnetic-Resonance Group

Project: Quantification of multi-dimensional MRS data

Education

National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India

June 2013 – June 2015

M.Sc. in Physics

Project: 'Effect of Annealing and Cu Doping on Structural and Optical Properties of ZnO Nanoparticles'

Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Anantapur, India

June 2010 – April 2013

B.Sc. (Hons.) in Physics

Project: 'Study of Gamma Spectrum of 75Se Decaying into 75As'

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