Spectroscopic imaging of the uptake kinetics of human brain ethanol

In Vivo Quantification of Ethanol Kinetics in Rat Brain

“…The in vivo kinetics of brain alcohol have been studied in human brain with 1H spectroscopic imaging at a 10 min (Hetherington et al, 1999) and a 13 min (Fein and Meyerhoff, 2000) temporal resolution, and with single-voxel spectroscopy at 4 min resolution (Fein and Meyerhoff, 2000). With sufficient SNR, higher temporalresolution kinetic studies are feasible, ultimately limited only by the repetition time of the acquisition, which is typically of the order of 2 s.…”

“…Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has been used to measure brain alcohol levels non-invasively in vivo (Fein and Meyerhoff, 2000;Hanstock et al, 1990;Hetherington et al, 1999;Petroff et al, 1990;Rooney et al, 2000;Sammi et al, 2000;Spielman et al, 1993). An added benefit of MRS for the estimation of brain alcohol kinetics is the ability to monitor alcohol-induced changes in the spectroscopically visible brain metabolites during kinetics testing.…”

“…Follow-up HPLC studies of tissue indicated that the alcohol-related metabolite ratio changes were possibly attributable to change in Cho rather than NAA. MRS studies of acute administration of alcohol in nonalcoholic humans have revealed that alcohol diffuses freely with water and is thus observed in concentrations proportional to the amount of water in a given brain compartment, although the variability of spectroscopically visible brain alcohol concentrations reported is between 21 and 99%, depending on scanning and scanner parameters and correction approach for tissue type (Fein et al, 1995;Hetherington et al, 1999;Kaufman et al, 1996;Spielman et al, 1993).…”

Direct monitoring of ethanol in the brain

“…These methods use spectroscopic techniques, such as magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 13,14 or positron emission tomography (PET), which are principally used to monitor ethanol metabolites 15 . The aim of this review is to show and critically discuss all the techniques used to monitor brain ethanol and highlight their strengths and weaknesses.…”

“…Previously, 14 C, 11 C-labelled ethanol molecules, combined with a radioactivity test and PET, were used to monitor the molecules derived from ethanol metabolism in the body [34][35][36] , but both isotopes have their disadvantages: the harmful radiation effect associated with a large dose of C NMR spectrum of ethanol (CH 3 CH 2 OH) is shown. The two carbons in ethanol are in different structural environments, and each produces a typical signal in the NMR spectrum.…”