Water-suppressed proton NMR spectroscopy of rat brain with localization by one dimensional phase encoding

The method presented allows water-suppressed proton NMR spectra of the rat brain to be obtained for short echo times with virtual elimination of contribution from subcutaneous fat. The method is robust enough for use with surface coils because the ability of the RF sequence to suppress the water is invariant to B₁ inhomogeneity: RF inhomogeneity simply leads to a reduction in SNR. A problem inherent in methods utilizing phase encoding is the point spread generated in that frequency domain following Fourier transformation which can be observed as signal `ringing´. The point spread is reduced as the number of phase encoding increments is increased but it cannot be eliminated entirely