Recent Advances in Magnetic Resonance Neurospectroscopy

Abstract

Summary:Over the past two decades, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (proton MRS) of the brain has made the transition from research tool to a clinically useful modality. In this review, we first describe the localization methods currently used in MRS studies of the brain and discuss the technical and practical factors that determine the applicability of the methods to particular clinical studies. We also describe each of the resonances detected by localized solvent-suppressed proton MRS of the brain and discuss the metabolic and biochemical information that can be derived from an analysis of their concentrations. We discuss spectral quantitation and summarize the reproducibility of both single-voxel and multivoxel methods at 1.5 and 3-4 T. We have selected three clinical neurologic applications in which there has been a consensus as to the diagnostic value of MRS and summarize the information relevant to clinical applications. Finally, we speculate about some of the potential technical developments, either in progress or in the future, that may lead to improvements in the performance of proton MRS.

Early Differential Neurometabolite Response of Hippocampus on Exposure to Graded dose of Whole Body Radiation: An in Vivo 1H MR Spectroscopy Study

“…Altered mI is usually interpreted to indicate as glial activation and macrophage infiltration 29 . The change in mI levels post irradiation in our study supports biochemical alterations associated with neuroinflammatory response of glial cells 30 . Several studies have supported another hypothesis that radiation induced injury is driven in part, via increased oxidative stress through generation of free radicals [31][32][33] .…”

Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of the Central Nervous System

“…The utility of NAA, as an axonal marker is supported by the loss of NAA in many white matter diseases, including leukodystrophies [11], multiple sclerosis (MS) [12] and hypoxic encephalopathy [13], chronic stages of stoke [14] and tumors [1,2,9]. However, there are cases when the abnormal levels of NAA do not reflect changes in neuronal density, but rather a perturbation of the synthetic and degradation pathways of NAA metabolism.…”

MRI in Multiple Sclerosis: What’s Inside the Toolbox?

“…The reader is referred to two recent reviews in this journal that include a discussion of the technical aspects of MRS. 55,56 Proton MRS studies have revealed that myriad brain metabolite concentrations including N-acetylaspartate (NAA), choline (Cho), lactate (Lac), lipids, myoinositol (mI), and glutamate/glutamine are altered in patients with MS and undergo longitudinal change. 55,57,58 Individual metabolites are believed to reflect specific underlying pathologies.…”