Abstract
Quantitative proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy was performed in frontal, parietal and occipital white and gray matter of young adults with use of a fully relaxed, short-echo time stimulated echo acquisition mode localization sequence at 2.0 T. Separate concentrations of the neuronal compounds N-acetylaspartate (NAA) and N-acetylaspartylglutamate (NAAG) were obtained by user-independent spectral analysis (LCModel). Except for occipital gray matter in which an NAA concentration of 10.1± 1.0 mM correlated with enhanced neuronal density in visual cortex, NAA was found to be homogeneously distributed throughout cortical white and gray matter at a concentration of 8.0-8.9 mM. NAAG concentrations of 1.5-2.7 mM were higher in white matter than levels of 0.6-1.5 mM found in gray matter, contributing up to 25 % of total N-acetyl-containing compounds. The frontal to parieto- occipital increase of both gray and white matter NAAG levels is also reflected in the distribution of total NAA.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 73-78 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | NMR in biomedicine |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 1997 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Human brain
- N-acetylaspartate
- N-acetylaspartylglutamate
- Proton spectroscopy