Pitfalls in the measurement of metabolite concentrations using the one-pulse experiment in in Vivo NMR: commentary on "On neglecting chemical exchange effects when correcting in vivo (31)P MRS data for partial saturation".

In an article in a previous issue of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance, Ouwerkerk and Bottomley (J. Magn. Reson. 148, pp. 425--435, 2001) show that even in the presence of chemical exchange, the dependence of saturation factors on repetition time in the one-pulse experiment is approximately monoexponential. They conclude from this fact that the effect of chemical exchange on the use of saturation factors when correcting for partial saturation is negligible. We take issue with this conclusion and demonstrate that because saturation factors in the presence of chemical exchange are strongly dependent upon all of the chemical parameters of the system, that is, upon all T(1)'s and M(0)'s of resonances in the exchange network and upon the reaction rates themselves, it is problematic to apply saturation factor corrections in situations in which any of these parameters may change. The error criterion we establish reflects actual errors in quantitation, rather than departures from monoexponentiality.