A pitfall associated with lactate detection using stimulated-echo proton spectroscopy.

At TE values of 136 ms, it has recently been shown that the lactate methyl signal, when obtained with a stimulated-echo (STE) sequence, is modulated at the zero-quantum (ZQ) frequency when TM is varied. Here we describe an additional modulation of the ZQ lactate signal, due to spin-spin coupling, that results in a 10-fold reduction in the lactate signal for TM intervals ranging between 48 and 84 ms (and at multiples of 136 ms thereof). Because of this J-modulation, improper choice of TE and TM intervals may give false negative results for lactate detection by STE spectroscopy.