sLASER and PRESS perform similarly at revealing metabolite‐age correlations at 3T

PurposeTo compare the respective ability of PRESS and sLASER to reveal biological relationships, using age as a validation covariate at 3 T.MethodsMRS data were acquired from 102 healthy volunteers using PRESS and sLASER in centrum semiovale and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC). Acquisition parameters included TR/TE = 2000/30 ms, 96 transients, and 2048 datapoints sampled at 2 kHz.Spectra were analyzed using Osprey. SNR, FWHM linewidth of total creatine, and metabolite concentrations were extracted. A linear model was used to compare SNR and linewidth. Paired t‐tests were used to assess differences in metabolite measurements between PRESS and sLASER. Correlations were used to evaluate the relationship between PRESS and sLASER metabolite estimates, as well as the strength of each metabolite‐age relationship. Coefficients of variation were calculated to assess inter‐subject variability in each metabolite measurement.ResultsSNR and linewidth were significantly higher (p