Evaluation of the Continuous Wavelet Transform as a Potential Method for Postacquisition Water Suppression in Biomedical Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

The analysis of biological systems by means of Proton ( 1 H) Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) shows a prominent water resonance which obscures the small metabolite signals. Preacquisition techniques have been successfully used to remove the water resonance and to relatively enhance the other component signals. However, these methods may suffer from baseline distortion and signal saturation of metabolites close to the water peak. An accurate quantification of such components could be compromised. The present work consists of the preliminary testing of the Continuous Wavelet Transform approach combined with the Data Shift Accumulation (WT-DSA) technique as a postacquisition water suppression method. A qualitative comparison has been performed between WT-DSA and two selected preacquisition water suppression techniques i.e. Presaturation and Watergate. The comparison was achieved on a 1 H MRS unsuppressed water data collected from two different artificial test solutions using a whole body 4T and a high resolution narrow bore 11.7T MRS systems and based on the degree of water suppression, residual baseline distortion and signal saturation. The WT-DSA technique appears to be a promising method to remove the water component without altering components near the water resonance.