31-P NMR in the study of liver metabolism in vivo.

Continuous noninvasive readout of biochemical events in body tissues is the goal of many techniques and optical and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) approaches seem to be at the forefront of these. Here we present a review of NMR methods for studying liver metabolism in vivo with special emphasis on methods of localizing the response appropriate to the liver itself and to the exclusion of surrounding tissues. The simplest and most direct method appears with the use of an implanted coil which enables a variety of NMR magnets to be used in this study.