Ethanol in Human Brain by Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy: Correlation With Blood and Breath Levels, Relaxation, and Magnetization Transfer

Abstract

Background-Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ( 1 H MRS) allows measurement of alcohol in the human brain after alcohol consumption. However, the quantity of alcohol that can be detected in the brain by 1 H MRS pulse sequences has been controversial, with values ranging from about 24% to 94% of the temporally concordant blood alcohol concentrations. The quantitation of brain alcohol is critically affected by the kinetics of alcohol uptake and elimination, by the relaxation times of the protons that give rise to the brain alcohol signal, and by the specifics of both pulse sequence timing and radio frequency pulse applications.

Intravenous Ethanol Infusion Decreases Human Cortical γ-Aminobutyric Acid and N-Acetylaspartate as Measured with Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy at 4 Tesla

“…This conclusion is based on ethanol signals normalized by the final values, because absolute quantification was not performed due to power-dependent bandwidths of the J-editing pulse at the 1.18-ppm position of ethanol. Similar conclusions were reached on the basis of measurements at steady-state following oral administration of ethanol (52). Within each session, the same power was used for all measurements, and the ethanol signals were internally consistent and could therefore be normalized to the end point.…”

Effects of Ethanol Exposure on the Neurochemical Profile of a Transgenic Mouse Model with Enhanced Glutamate Release Using In Vivo 1H MRS

“…Further, it was found that ethanol elimination rate in mice ranged from 83.2 ± 8.2 to 98.8 ± 9.6 mg/dl/hr (mean ± SEM) [57]. Multiple studies have shown that regardless of the mode of EtOH administration in rodents, EtOH levels in the brain are almost identical to the blood levels and follow very closely the rise and fall of blood levels of EtOH over time post administration [58–60]. A quick calculation would suggest that based on the measurements in previous studies [56], one hour after EtOH ingestion the concentration of EtOH in blood would be about 20 μmol/g tissue, which is in line with the average brain EtOH concentrations we estimated in the present study that varied between 5 and 20 μmol/g.…”

Brain proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy of alcohol use disorders

“…19.1). Alcohol itself can be detected in the brain after alcohol consumption (Fein and Meyerhoff, 2000) and there is a body of work that describes the “visibility” of the alcohol signal in the brain as a function of membrane rigidity and chronic tolerance to alcohol; however, these studies are not reviewed here and the interested reader is referred to Kroenke et al (2013). Here we give a brief description of the commonly detected proton metabolites, their role in alcohol dependence, and how they have furthered our understanding of the neurobiology of alcohol dependence and addiction in general.…”