Evaluation of the stability of the proton chemical shifts of some metabolites other than water during thermal cycling of normal human muscle tissue.

MR temperature measurements made by the chemical-shift-of-water technique in peripheral muscle of volunteers have produced larger-than-expected coefficients of change and shown significant hysteresis effects as the temperature was cycled, although these effects were not reproduced in the present study. Previous work has suggested that susceptibility effects could be a contributor to the behavior of the chemical shift data. Here, we use proton spectroscopy of muscle in conjunction with temperature cycling to evaluate the relative shifts of the water peak and those of creatine, choline, and lipids. These latter are considered not to have significant temperature coefficients of chemical shift. The results show that these lines remain very stable as the temperature is cycled, suggesting that susceptibility effects are not present in this study. The method offers the possibility that the lines can be used as frequency references if there are any questions about the stability of other moieties.