An inductively coupled, chronically implanted short-solenoid coil was used to obtain in vivo localized 1 H NMR spectra and diffusion-weighted images from a rat spinal cord. A 5 ؋ 8 mm two-turn elliptically shaped solenoid coil was implanted in rats at the site of a T-12 vertebral-level laminectomy. Excitation was achieved solely by a 3 ؋ 3 cm external surface coil, and signal detection was achieved by inductively coupling the external coil to the implanted coil. The image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) obtained with the inductively-coupled implanted coil was compared with that obtained using a linear or a quadrature external surface coil. The implanted coil provided a gain by over a factor of 3 in SNR. The implanted coil was used to measure localized 1 H spectra in vivo at the T13/L1 spinal-cord level within a 1.85 ؋ 1.85 ؋ 4.82 mm (16.5 L) volume. With 256 averages, a ϳ3-s repetition delay and respiratory gating, a high-quality spectrum was acquired in 13 min. In addition, water translational diffusion was measured in three orthogonal directions using a stimulatedecho imaging sequence, with a short echo time (