Regional Differences in the Concentrations of Metabolites in the Brain of Healthy Children: A Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (1HMRS) Study

What is it about?

The aim of this HMRS study was to define any regional differences in metabolic spectrum between healthy children. 49 healthy children aged 6 - 15 years (mean 11.6 years) were examined, including 21 girls and 28 boys. 1.5T MR system was used (xi Signa HD 1.5T General Electric). The VOI (Volume of Interest) was defined in 7 locations: the frontal lobe in the right and left hemispheres, the basal ganglia in the right and left hemispheres, hippocampus in the right and left hemispheres and cerebellum. For the analysis of data obtained from the HMRS study, SAGE 7.0 software was used. Differences in metabolites concentrations in various regions of the brain in children were verified with the t-test for independent samples. For all examined metabolites, there are significant differences in concentration levels between various brain regions. The metabolite which shows the greatest regional variation is NAA for which significant differences between all locations are present. Only in the case of Lip/Cr and the ratio of the Lip concentration to the sum of the concentrations of all the metabolites do not occur any significant differences. The results of the study show that a child's brain is inhomogeneous. The results underline the need of taking into account the regional differences in the concentrations of metabolites when comparing the results of studies in children HMRS.

Featured Image