BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The diagnosis of gliomatosis cerebri with MR imaging is known to be difficult. We report on the value of MR spectroscopy in the diagnosis, grading, and biopsy planing in eight patients with histopathologically proved gliomatosis cerebri. METHODS Patients underwent MR imaging and MR spectroscopy (single-voxel point-resolved spectroscopy [PRESS] at 1500/135, and chemical-...

Histone acetylation depends on the abundance of nucleo-cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA. Here, we present a novel route for cytoplasmic acetyl-CoA production in brown adipocytes. N-acetylaspartate (NAA) is a highly abundant brain metabolite catabolized by aspartoacylase yielding aspartate and acetate. The latter can be further used for acetyl-CoA production. Prior to this work, the presence of NAA has no...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE MR spectroscopy allows the noninvasive evaluation of in vivo brain metabolites. Our purpose was to use this technique to assess metabolic alterations in the human cerebrum during growth, maturation, and aging. METHODS Ninety normal human brains in subjects aged 4 to 88 years were examined with multivoxel proton MR spectroscopy. Spectra were obtained from specific voxels...

To determine if proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ((1)H-MRS) detect differences in dementia status in adults with Down syndrome (DS), we used (1)H-MRS to measure neuronal and glial metabolites in the posterior cingulate cortex in 22 adults with DS and in 15 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. We evaluated associations between (1)H-MRS results and cognition among DS participants. Neur...

Over the past two decades, many magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) studies reported lower N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in key brain regions of patients with schizophrenia (SZ) compared to healthy subjects. A smaller number of studies report no difference in NAA. Many sources of variance may contribute to these discordant results including heterogeneity of the SZ subject populations and methodolog...

PURPOSE To evaluate the diagnostic value of 3T (1)H-MRS in grading cerebral gliomas using short and long echo times. METHODS 1H-MRS was performed on 71 patients with untreated cerebral gliomas. Metabolite ratios of NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr, Cho/NAA, and mI/Cr were calculated for short and long TE and compared between low and high grade gliomas. Lipids were qualitatively evaluated. ROC analysis was perf...

BACKGROUND Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a highly prevalent cause of neurological disability and has different clinical subtypes with potentially different underlying pathologies. Differentiation of primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) from relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) could be difficult especially in its early phases. OBJECTIVES We compared brain metabolite concentrati...

For the past 40 y the scientific community has decried the inadequacy of the training of physicians and other health professionals in the subject of human nutrition. In 1997 the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute developed the Nutrition Academic Award (NAA) Program, an initiative to improve nutrition training across a network of US medical schools. The purpose of this funding, which bega...

BACKGROUND The term kernicterus, or bilirubin encephalopathy, is used to describe pathological bilirubin staining of the basal ganglia, brain stem, and cerebellum, and is associated with hyperbilirubinemia. Kernicterus generally occurs in untreated hyperbilirubinemia or cases where treatment is delayed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based studies have shown characteristic findings in kernict...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have produced controversial results concerning the correlation of hippocampal volume loss with increasing age. The goals in this study were: 1) to test whether levels of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA, a neuron marker) change in the hippocampus during normal aging and 2) to determine the relationship between hippocampal NAA and volume changes. Proton magnetic r...