Proton detection of choline and lactate in EMT6 tumors by spin-echo-enhanced selective multiple-quantum-coherence transfer

An extension of the Sel-MQC pulse sequence-SEE-SelMQC (spin-echo-enhanced selective multiple-quantum coherence transfer)-that completely suppresses lipid and water in tissues containing mobile lipid in a single scan and detects H-1 resonances of multiple metabolites is described. As in the Sel-MQC lactate-editing experiments [Q. He et al., J. Magn. Reson. B 106, 203 (1995)], SEE-SelMQC acquires lactate from its ZQ --> DQ coherence-transfer pathway; in addition, the method recovers signal from other metabolites by selective generation of additional spin echoes using extra frequency-selective pulses and gradients, This method introduces no loss of lactate signal intensity beyond the 50% that is lost through the multiple-quantum coherence-transfer process, The spatial distributions of choline and lactate with a phantom and in vivo, in subcutaneously implanted murine EMT6 tumors, have been simultaneously mapped. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.