Nuclear magnetic resonance response of protons in normal and pathological human muscles.

An in vitro study of the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) response of protons in normal and pathological human skeletal muscle is presented. Muscle biopsies from 34 patients with various neuromuscular diseases and five normal subjects were studied by proton NMR techniques and the results were compared with those of light and electron microscopy. Proton spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) and recovery law for the nuclear magnetization have been determined at 37 degrees C and 43.5 MHz. The T1S for normal tissues were in the 650 to 800 ms range and the recovery process was nearly exponential. Muscles with well defined neuromuscular diseases were associated with highly nonexponential relaxation processes. The relationship between morphological alterations of the muscle tissues and the proton NMR response may become the basis of a fast and simple method for the diagnosis of neuromuscular diseases.