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 1H 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.