A comparative study of short- and long-TE 1H MRS at 3 T for in vivo detection of 2-hydroxyglutarate in brain tumors

2-Hydroxyglutarate (2HG) is produced in gliomas with mutations of isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) 1 and 2. The 1H resonances of the J-coupled spins of 2HG are extensively overlapped with signals from other metabolites. Here, we report a comparative study at 3 T of the utility of the point-resolved spectroscopy sequence with a standard short TE (35 ms) and a long TE (97 ms), which had been theoretically designed for the detection of the 2HG 2.25-ppm resonance. The performance of the methods is evaluated using data from phantoms, seven healthy volunteers and 22 subjects with IDH-mutated gliomas. The results indicate that TE= 97 ms provides higher detectability of 2HG than TE= 35 ms, and that this improved capability is gained when data are analyzed with basis spectra that include the effects of the volume localizing radiofrequency and gradient pulses. Copyright (C) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.