ProFit: two-dimensional prior-knowledge fitting of J-resolved spectra.

A two-dimensional fitting procedure is introduced, capable of extracting the full amount of information from 2D J-resolved magnetic resonance spectroscopic data. The fitting procedure uses a linear combination of 2D model spectra. For reducing the degrees of freedom and increasing robustness, it is divided into a non-linear outer loop and an inner linear least-squares fit for the concentrations. In vitro and in vivo experiments on a whole-body 3 T MR scanner show the detectability of a wide range of metabolites in the human brain, namely total creatine, N-acetylaspartate, N-acetylaspartylglutamate, choline-containing compounds, glutamate, myo-inositol, glutathione, scyllo-inositol, gamma-aminobutyric acid, alanine and ascorbic acid.