Observation of resolved glucose signals in ¹H NMR spectra of the human brain at 4 tesla

Measurement of the resonances of glucose between 3.2 and 3.9 ppm in ¹H NMR spectra from the human brain is difficult due to spectral overlap with peaks from more concentrated metabolites. The H1 resonance of α-D-glucose at 5.23 ppm is resolved from other metabolite peaks, but potentially overlaps with the intense water signal at 4.72 ppm. This paper demonstrates that the increased resolution at 4 Tesla permits to suppress the water signal sufficiently to reliably detect glucose directly at 5.23 ppm by ¹H MRS and the estimated peak intensity is consistent with previous ¹³C NMR quantification.