Radiology, Vol 160, 763-766, Copyright © 1986 by Radiological Society of North America
Chronic adult cerebral infarction studied by phosphorus NMR spectroscopy
PA Bottomley, BP Drayer and LS Smith
Spatially localized phosphorus (P-31) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
spectra were recorded in vivo from the brains of nine healthy adults and of
four adult patients examined 10 weeks to 7 years following cerebral
infarction. Spectra from the healthy adult subjects showed reduced
inorganic phosphate (Pi) and phosphoester resonances compared with earlier
such measurements in infants. Spectra from subjects with chronic cerebral
infarction exhibited no significant differences in the ratios of
high-energy phosphate metabolites, Pi, or pH compared with the spectra of
the healthy adults, although decreases of up to about 40% in the total P-31
NMR signal from infarcted tissue were noted. These results are consistent
with a reduction in the number of metabolically active brain cells and/or a
decrease in cellular functional activity in chronic infarction. Phosphorus
metabolite ratios do not appear to be a sensitive indicator of abnormal
energy reserve in chronic brain infarction in adults.
