Gannet: A batch‐processing tool for the quantitative analysis of gamma‐aminobutyric acid–edited MR spectroscopy spectra

Using MEGA-PRESS editing and standard acquisition parameters, four MEGA-PRESS spectra were acquired in three brain regions in 10 healthy volunteers. These 120 datasets were processed without user intervention with Gannet, a Matlab-based tool that takes raw time-domain data input, processes it to generate the frequency-domain edited spectrum, and applies a simple modeling procedure to estimate GABA concentration relative to the creatine or, if provided, the unsuppressed water signal. A comparison of four modeling approaches is also presented.

All data were successfully processed by Gannet. Coefficients of variation across subjects ranged from 11% for the occipital region to 17% for the dorsolateral prefrontal region. There was no clear difference in fitting performance between the simple Gaussian model used by Gannet and the other more complex models presented.