Ayse Ece ErcanAranee TechawiboonwongMaarten J. VersluisAndrew G. WebbItamar RonenLeiden University Medical Center - LUMCMahidol University2018-11-232018-11-232015-06-01Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Vol.73, No.6 (2015), 2053-206115222594074031942-s2.0-84929630421https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/20.500.14594/36418© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Purpose Diffusion-weighted chemical shift imaging (DW-CSI) of brain metabolites poses significant challenges associated with the acquisition of spectroscopic data in the presence of strong diffusion weighting gradients. We present a reproducible DW-CSI acquisition and processing scheme that addresses most of the potential sources of instability and provides reproducible and anatomically meaningful diffusion-weighted and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) metabolite maps. Methods A real-time navigator-based acquisition scheme was used, allowing instantaneous reacquisition of corrupted k-space data and postprocessing correction of gradient-induced phase fluctuations. Eddy current correction based on residual water resonance was implemented and improved the quality of the data significantly. Results Highly reproducible diffusion-weighted metabolite maps of three highest concentration brain metabolites are shown. The navigator-based accept/reject strategy and the postacquisition corrections improved the stability of the DW-CSI signal and the reproducibility of the resulting DW-CSI maps significantly. The metabolite ADC values could be related to the underlying tissue cellular composition. Conclusion Robust investigation of DW-CSI of brain metabolites is feasible and may provide information complementary to that obtained from more sensitive but less specific methods such as diffusion tensor imaging. Magn Reson Med 73:2053-2061, 2015.Mahidol UniversityMedicineArticleSCOPUS10.1002/mrm.25346