Signal enhancement of glutamine and glutathione by single-step spectral editing

[Display omitted] •Single-step spectral editing for enhancing glutamine and glutathione signals at 7 T.•Editing at 2.12 ppm induces the Glu, Gln, and GSH glutamyl H4 protons to form intense peaks at TE = 56 ms.•Signal enhancement of 61% for Gln and 51% for GSH compared to a single-step method with TE = 106 ms. A single-step spectral editing approach using an always-on editing pulse was proposed to enhance the signals of strongly coupled spins. Specifically, a single-step spectral editing sequence with an always-on editing pulse applied at 2.12 ppm was used to enhance glutamine (Gln) and glutathione (GSH) signals at TE = 56 ms on a 7 T scanner. Density matrix simulations demonstrated that the current method (TE = 56 ms) led to large signal enhancement of at least 61% for Gln and 51% for GSH compared to a previous single-step method (TE = 106 ms). Monte Carlo simulations showed that the current method reduced noise-originated variations by 31% for Gln and 26% for GSH compared to a previous three-step spectral editing method from which the present method was derived.