Evaluation of the double-quantum filter for the measurement of intracellular sodium concentration.

Evaluation of the double-quantum filter for sodium was performed on several sample series of bovine serum albumin in water. Both single-quantum (1Q) and double-quantum (2Q) measurements were obtained. The quality of the 2Q filter was found to be quite sensitive to pulse width setting. Ordinary 1Q measurements of sodium in albumin-containing solutions show 100% visibility. At high ionic strengths, the 2Q albumin results confirm earlier conclusions demonstrating the tendency for the albumin molecule to unfold under a variety of influences. At physiological sodium concentrations, the magnitude of the 2Q/1Q ratio is controlled not only by the concentration of albumin, but also by the solution pH. Non-zero, double-quantum signals were observed in physiological samples consisting of essentially intracellular material (packed red blood cells) as well as in extracellular material (plasma and urine). Measurements in human urine showed no 2Q signal. However, high-concentration NaCl solutions did produce real, measurable 2Q signals. Therefore, the 2Q filter does not measure intracellular sodium exclusively. Although packed red blood cells gave the highest 2Q/1Q ratio (8.5 x 10(-3), plasma gave a very considerable 2Q/1Q ratio (2.3 x 10(-3). Because of its relatively high extracellular concentration, extracellular sodium may give a greater absolute 2Q signal than intracellular sodium in unmodified tissue samples. Based on these data, we conclude that a 2Q filter will not provide a useful measurement of intracellular sodium in in vivo tissue samples.