In vivo relaxation of N-acetyl-aspartate, creatine plus phosphocreatine, and choline containing compounds during the course of brain infarction: a proton MRS study.

Localized water suppressed proton spectroscopy has opened up a new field of pathophysiological studies of severe brain ischemia. The signals obtained with the pulse sequences used so far are both T1 and T2 weighted. In order to evaluate the extent to which changes in metabolite signals during the course of infarction can be explained by changes in T1 and T2 relaxation times, eight patients with acute stroke were studied. STEAM sequences with varying echo delay times and repetition times were used to measure T1 and T2 of N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA), creatine plus phosphocreatine (Cr+PCr) and choline containing compounds (CHO) in a 27-ml voxel located in the affected area of the brain. Ten healthy volunteers served as controls. We found no difference in T1 or T2 of the metabolites between the patients and the normal controls. The T2 of CHO was longer than that of NAA and Cr+PCr. Our results indicate that spectra obtained in brain infarcts and normal tissue with the same acquisition parameters are directly comparable with respect to relative signal intensities as well as signals scaled with internal and external standards.