Clinical application of proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy to cerebral ischemia.

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) with the depth resolved surface coil spectroscopy technique and the 1331-2662 water suppression method was used to examine two cerebral ischemia patients and 10 normal volunteers. In all cases, N-acetyl-aspartate, creatine, phosphocreatine, and residual lipid were clearly observed. No lactic acid peak was observed in normal volunteers, but a large lactic acid peak appeared in the early stage of cerebral ischemia. This MRS abnormality was observed before abnormalities appeared in conventional imaging such as computed tomographic scanning and magnetic resonance imaging.