A study of patients with alcoholic liver disease by 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Abstract

1. Patients with a history of alcohol abuse were studied by 31P n.m.r. spectroscopy of the liver in vivo, and the results were related to the pattern of disease assessed by standard biochemical and histological techniques. 2. The ratios of metabolites measured from the 31P n.m.r. spectra were abnormal in patients with alcoholic hepatitis but not in those with fatty change or cirrhosis in the absence of hepatitis. In particular, the levels of phosphomonoesters were raised, with respect either to Pi, or to adenosine 5'-triphosphate. The level of phosphomonoesters showed a significant positive correlation with the severity of alcoholic hepatitis, assessed by histology. 3. The ratio of Pi to adenosine 5'-triphosphate was used as a measure of the energy status of the hepatocytes, and was unchanged between patients and controls.

Abnormal phosphomonoester signals in 31P MR spectra from patients with hepatic lymphoma. A possible marker of liver infiltration and response to chemotherapy

“…The biochemical basis of these changes is, however, unclear. An increased hepatic PME peak is not specific to cancer, as it is also found in conditions such as alcoholic hepatitis (Angus et al, 1990) hepatitis (Oberhaensli et al, 1990). In the present study we obtained spectra from superficial malignant lymphoma masses in three patients; these spectra also showed very large monoester peaks.…”

The Relationship Of In Vivo 31P Mr Spectroscopy to Histology in Chronic Hepatitis C

“…These studies have reported good correlation with either an increased PME resonance or decreased PDE resonance in cirrhotic livers. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][24][25][26][27][28][29] However, none has studied precirrhotic disease, apart from a relatively recent study by Kiyono et al 29 They found no correlation between the spectra obtained and histopathologic grading in a cohort of patients with either chronic viral hepatitis (hepatitis B or hepatitis C viruses) or autoimmune hepatitis. This study was flawed in that the etiology of the disease was not stratified properly and there was no clear or accepted histologic grading system used.…”

“…1) contains resonances that can be assigned to phosphomonoesters (PME), containing information from sugar phosphates in the glycolytic pathway and from cell membrane precursors such as phosphoethanolamine and phosphocholine; to phosphodiesters (PDE), containing information from endoplasmic reticulum and from cell membrane degradation products such as glycerophosphorylcholine and glycerophosphorylethanolamine, in addition to signals from inorganic phosphate (P i ) and nucleotide triphosphates (NTP), including adenosine triphosphate. [7][8][9][10][11] Several previous studies have shown abnormalities in the PME resonance or PME/NTP, PME/PDE, and PDE/NTP ratios in patients with cirrhosis. [12][13][14][15][16] However, our study compared the spectral abnormalities in a cohort of patients with precirrhotic liver disease to assess the use of MRS in grading disease severity, compared with histology from liver biopsy.…”

Altered phosphorylation status, phospholipid metabolism and gluconeogenesis in the host liver of rats with prostate cancer: a 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

“…The metabolic abnormalities observed here by 31p MRS in vivo are markedly distinct from alterations previously reported in liver disease. Most (Angus et al, 1990;Meyerhoff et al, 1990;Oberhaensli et al, 1990;Cox et al, 1992aCox et al, , 1992b The lack of significance in the apparent fall in PME levels in vivo may have been due to errors in estimating this peak. a b Figure 3 Ultrastructural appearances of hepatocytes from a, control livers and b, host livers of tumour-bearing rats.…”