Limit of detection of cerebral metabolites by localized NMR spectroscopy using microcoils

NMR has the ability to investigate biological systems non-destructively; however, its low sensitivity has primarily hampered their investigation compared to other techniques. Therefore, optimizing radiofrequency coils to improve sensitivity do offer benefits in NMR spectroscopy. Sensitivity may be improved for mass and volume limited samples if the size of the detection RF coils matches the sample size. In this paper, the mass and concentration limits of detection (LODm, LODc) for a microcoil will be estimated by MRS measurements and then compared with analytical values. For the Choline case, the LODc is close to 4.4mM. These preliminary results enable us to open largely the biomedical applications based on cerebral metabolism investigation by experiments in small animals.