Direct carbon versus proton heteronuclear editing of 2-13C ethanol in rabbit brain in vivo: a sensitivity comparison.

Proton NMR editing techniques were utilized to study the pharmacology of 13C-labeled ethanol in the cerebrum of the living rabbit at 4.7 T. The sensitivity of these proton spectroscopic methods was compared to direct carbon spectroscopy and a 14-fold improvement in sensitivity of 1H over 13C NMR spectroscopy was observed in vivo. This increase in sensitivity permitted the observation of the time course of the influx and afflux of this 13C-labeled compound with a time resolution of approximately 2 min per spectrum.