Integrated volume-selective/spectral editing 1H NMR and postdetection signal processing for the sensitive determination of lactate

1H NMR detection of lactate and alanine in perfused rat hearts during global and low pressure ischemia

A spin-echo method is presented for obtaining high resolution, 13C coupled, proton spectra of lactate and alanine in intact, beating rat hearts. All hearts were depleted of glycogen prior to prolonged perfusion with either 10 mM unenriched glucose or [1-13C]glucose to restore glycogen. These two groups of hearts were then examined by 1H NMR during prolonged global (zero flow) or low pressure (low flow) ischemia. During global ischemia, lactate was derived from both glucose and glycogen, with endogenous glycogen contributing twice as much lactate as exogenous glucose. During low perfusion pressure ischemia, however, lactate was derived exclusively from exogenous glucose. The entire pool of lactate (both 12C and 13C) was visible by NMR in intact, glucose perfused hearts while alanine was not detected. However, upon adding 10 mM pyruvate to the perfusate, the entire alanine pool became NMR visible while some of the lactate became NMR invisible. These observations indicate that the NMR visibility of small, usually highly mobile metabolites such as alanine and lactate is not always 100% in intact hearts and that the NMR visibility of these molecules may depend upon which exogenous substrate is presented to the heart.

Incorporation of lactate measurement in multi-spin-echo proton spectroscopic imaging

An improved multi-slice, multi-spin-echo proton spectroscopic imaging method for human brain is presented. The technique allows the reconstruction of lactate images, along with choline plus creatine, N-acetylaspartate, and lipid images from one single data set processed in three separate ways. The discrimination between resonances of lipid protons and lactate methyl protons is based on homonuclear spin-spin coupling. The reliability of the separation of the lipid and lactate contribution depends on the T2 of the lipid resonances. Measurements were performed on a standard 1.5 Tesla clinical scanner on healthy volunteers and a patient with high grade CNS lymphoma, demonstrating the ability to obtain high quality metabolite maps within 11 min.

Coupling effects in volume selective 1H spectroscopy of major brain metabolites

The effect of PRESS and STEAM sequences on the spectra of coupled substances are discussed using the examples of weakly coupled AX and A2X systems. Maximum differences compared to uncoupled spins occur if the RF pulses are applied to antiphase magnetization. In this case, the spin echo of the PRESS experiment shows a modified dependence on the refocusing flip angle, which may lead to an attenuation of the acquired signal. In STEAM spectroscopy the evolution within the middle interval tm is dominated by zero quantum coherences and longitudinal polarization, whose maximum efficiencies are 25 and 12.5%, respectively. Zero quantum coherences may lead to strong modulations when the tm value is varied. The effects on the spectra of important coupled metabolites of the human brain such as glutamate, GABA, inositol, and particularly lactate, are demonstrated. The observed modulations seem to make the quantification of the spectra rather difficult at echo times above 50 ms.

In vivo volume-selective metabolite editing via correlated z-order

Volume-selected 1H NMR spectroscopy was combined with spectral editing to selectively detect brain metabolites. The SPACE localization sequence was used to create a voxel of zeta-magnetization which could then be edited for any scalar coupled metabolite by the use of selective excitation in the ECZOTIC sequence to generate longitudinal spin order. The sequence returns an edited signal with no intrinsic loss of magnetization. The method was applied to observe approximately 10 mM ethanol and 17 mM lactate in the brain of a dog.

On the use of double-quantum coherence from an AX3 system (protons in lactate) for spectral editing

The suppression of water signals in in vivo proton spectra by means of multiple-quantum filtering can be brought about in several ways. This communication exposes the shortcomings of using purely subtractive filtering techniques to observe signals from metabolites that contain proton couplings of the form AX3.

Double-quantum filtered volume-selective NMR spectroscopy

An RF and field-gradient pulse sequence is presented, permitting the recording of localized double-quantum filtered proton spectra. In this way distinction between overlapping resonances of coupled and uncoupled spins is possible. The editing of the lactate methyl line is demonstrated in a test experiment.

Single-scan volume-selective editing of NMR spectra with the aid of a split-pathway technique for homonuclear applications

An RF and field-gradient pulse sequence that permits the recording of localized and edited proton spectra is presented. The editing principle is a technique of splitting and recombining the coherence pathways. While the recombination of the pathways of uncoupled spins is destructive, that of coupled spins can be adjusted to be constructive.