Semi-parametric estimation in magnetic resonance spectroscopy: automation of the disentanglement procedure.

Semi-parametric disentanglement of parametric parts from non-parametric parts of a signal is a universal problem. This study concerns estimation of metabolite concentrations from in vivo Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) signals. Due to in vivo conditions, so-called macro-molecules contribute non-parametric components to the signals. Disentanglement is achieved by exploiting prior knowledge about the parametric and non-parametric parts directly in the measurement domain. Moreover, Cramér-Rao bounds on the non-parametric part are derived. These expressions are used to automate the disentanglement procedure.