Preprocessing, analysis and quantification in single‐voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy: experts' consensus recommendations

Once an MRS dataset has been acquired, several important steps must be taken to obtain the desired metabolite concentration measures. First, the data must be preprocessed to prepare them for analysis. Next, the intensity of the metabolite signal(s) of interest must be estimated. Finally, the measured metabolite signal intensities must be converted into scaled concentration units employing a quantitative reference signal to allow meaningful interpretation. In this paper, we review these three main steps in the post‐acquisition workflow of a single‐voxel MRS experiment (preprocessing, analysis and quantification) and provide recommendations for best practices at each step. In this article, we summarize the three main stages in the post‐acquisition workflow of an in vivo MRS experiment: preprocessing, to prepare the acquired raw data; analysis, to estimate the signal intensities of the observed spectral peaks, and quantification, to convert the estimated signal intensities into meaningful concentration units. We describe the most important and commonly used approaches in each stage, and we provide experts' recommendations for best practices.