1H NMR relaxation times of skeletal muscle metabolites at 3 T.

This study reports proton relaxation times of water and metabolites in soleus and tibialis anterior muscles of young healthy volunteers at 3 T. The results are in agreement with data reported for 1.5 and 4 T, showing a steady increase of spin-lattice relaxation times of water, creatine and lipids with B(0) and no effect of B(0) on spin-spin relaxation. Comparison between muscles revealed a longer spin-spin relaxation time of water in soleus than in tibialis anterior muscle (31+/-1 ms vs. 28+/-1 ms, p<0.05). These data can be applied to relaxation correction for the absolute quantification of skeletal muscle metabolite concentrations and further sequence optimization.