Proton localized MR spectroscopy study of brain metabolite ratios in patients with multiple sclerosis

This paper investigates the N-acetyl aspartate (NAA)/choline (Cho) and NAA/(phosphocreatine [PCr] + creatine [Cr]) ratios in brain proton-localized MR spectroscopy of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The authors examined 15 MS patients and 17 control subjects at 1.5 T with proton MR spectroscopy using the STEAM method, to detect changes in the Cho, PCr + Cr, and NAA peak intensities. The peak ratios NAA/(PCr + Cr) and NAA/Cho were significantly smaller in the MS patients (factor 0.78) than in the normal subjects (P < .001). Since the decrease was the same for both ratios, it was attributed to a reduction in the NAA peak intensity. The series is now being extended to measure the T1 and T2 of the metabolites. First results indicate that there is no significant difference (P > .1) between the T1 and T2 of MS patients and the normal subjects