Spectral resolution enhancement of magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging

1. A method for enhancing the spectral resolution of magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) measurements of a subject comprising the steps of:

receiving time domain echo data for an MRS volume in a subject from an MRS measurement;

receiving high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements; and

determining frequency-domain spectral content of the echo data of the MRS volume based at least in part on the complex signal values of the MRI measurements.

2. A method comprising:

receiving time domain echo data for an MRS volume in a subject from an MRS measurement;

receiving high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements, comprising receiving high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume for each of two different echo time settings; and

determining the frequency-domain content of the echo data based at least in part on the complex signal values, comprising determining high resolution frequency dispersion values for the MRS volume based on differences in the complex signal values for the two different echo time settings.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein the high resolution frequency dispersion values provide a magnetic field map data that indicates spatial variations in strength of a static magnetic field, B 0 , in the MRS volume.

4. The method as recited in claim 2 , wherein determining the frequency-domain content of the echo data further comprises:

determining a time-domain lineshape profile for the MRS volume based on the high resolution frequency dispersion values;

determining corrected echo data by de-convolving the lineshape profile and the echo data in the time domain; and

determining frequency-domain content of the corrected echo data.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 , wherein determining the corrected echo data further comprises applying a filtering window that reduces spikes generated when the lineshape profile falls below a noise level or approaches a value of zero.

6. The method as recited in claim 4 , wherein determining the corrected echo data further comprises removing a water residue in the echo data before de-convolving the lineshape profile.

7. The method as recited in claim 4 , wherein determining the lineshape profile further comprises matching the lineshape profile processing to the processing of the MSR measurement in the MRS volume to obtain the echo data.

8. The method as recited in claim 4 , wherein determining the lineshape profile further comprises:

synthesizing echo signals of the form exp(j 2πΔf(v i )t d ), where exp( )is a function that raises the natural constant e to the power of the value inside the parentheses, j is the square root of −1, i is an index for an individual MRI voxel in the MRS volume, v i is the position within the MRS volume of the ith MRI voxel, t d is a set of discrete sample times for the echo data, and Δf(v i ) is a frequency dispersion value for an individual MRI voxel; and

summing the synthesized echo signals for all MRI voxels in the MRS volume.

9. The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein determining the lineshape profile further comprises:

performing a two dimensional spatial inverse Fourier transform to transform the sum of synthesized echo signals into wavenumber space;

cropping the wavenumber space data into a size of phase encoding dimensions used for the MRS volume;

filtering the cropped wavenumber space data with a window function as done for the MRS measurement; and

performing a Fourier transform on the filtered, cropped wavenumber space data back into the spatial domain,

whereby the lineshape profile processing is matched to the processing of the MSR measurement in the MRS volume.

10. The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein:

determining the lineshape profile further comprises forming a multi-dimensional product by multiplying the synthesized echo with phase encoding functions in the form of

exp(j 2πk n *r), where k n is the wavenumber vector in wavenumber space and

r is the position vector in real space;

summing the synthesized echo for all MRI voxels in the MRS volume includes integrating the multi-dimensional product over the whole MRSI volume; and

determining the lineshape profile further comprises repeating forming a multi-dimensional product and integrating the multidimensional product over the whole MRSI volume for all k n , that are the same as in the MRS measurement.

11. The method as recited in claim 10 , wherein determining the lineshape profile further comprises:

filtering the multidimensional product with a window function as done for the MRS measurement; and

performing a spatial Fourier transform on the multi-dimensional product in wavenumber space to produce a multi-dimensional product in real space and time.

12. A method for operating a magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) system comprising the steps of:

collecting time domain echo data for an MRS volume in a subject using an MRS mode of an MRS system;

collecting high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements; and

determining frequency-domain spectral content of the echo data of the MRS volume based at a least in part on the complex signal values of the MRI measurements.

13. A method for operating a magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) system comprising:

collecting time domain echo data for an MRS volume in a subject using an MRS mode of an MRS system;

collecting high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements, further comprising collecting high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume for each of two different echo time settings; and

determining frequency-domain content of the echo data based at a least in part on the complex signal values, further comprising determining high resolution frequency dispersion values for the MRS volume based on differences in the complex signal values for the two different echo time settings.

14. An apparatus for magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) measurements comprising:

means for collecting time domain echo data for an MRS volume in a subject using an MRS mode of an MRS system;

means for collecting high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements; and

means for determining frequency-domain spectral content of the echo data of the MRS volume based at least in part on the complex signal values of the MRI measurements.

15. An apparatus for magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) measurements comprising:

means for collecting time domain echo data for an MRS volume in a subject using an MRS mode of an MRS system;

means for collecting high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements, further comprising means for collecting high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume for each of two different echo time settings; and

means for determining the frequency-domain content of the echo data based at least in part on the complex signal values, further comprising means for determining high resolution frequency dispersion values for the MRS volume based on differences in the complex signal values for the two different echo time settings.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for enhancing the spectral resolution of magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) measurements, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

receiving time domain echo data for an MRS volume in a subject from an MRS measurement;

receiving high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements; and

determining frequency-domain spectral content of the echo data of the MRS volume based at least in part on the complex signal values of the MRI measurements.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of instructions for enhancing the spectral resolution of magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) measurements, wherein execution of the one or more sequences of instructions by one or more processors causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

receiving time domain echo data for an MRS volume in a subject from an MRS measurement;

receiving the high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements, further comprising receiving high spatial resolution complex signal values within the MRS volume for each of two different echo time settings; and

determining the frequency-domain content of the echo data based at least in part on the complex signal values, further comprising determining high resolution frequency dispersion values for the MRS volume based on differences in the complex signal values for the two different echo time settings.