In Vivo N.M.R

Abstract

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy has seen an appreciable development since the appearance of supraconducting high field magnets and the rapid evolution of computer hardware. The applications of N.M.R. in biology developed more slowly in line with the development of new techniques such as 2D N.M.R. This delay can be explained for technological reasons : classical supraconducting magnets were very ill adapted in particular to living systems, the average diameter of the working area for the sample being restricted to 40mm. There are, however, some more “psychological” reasons: the main characteristic of a good sample being its perfect homogeneity, it is obvious that living systems correspond poorly to this criterion. Medical imagery, which takes advantage of this inhomogeneity, has since brought N.M.R. spectroscopy in its wake. Hence amongst the developments being perfected spectroscopic imagery appears principally in assaying the doses of metabolites in a living being. N.M.R. gives access, in a non-invasive manner and in real time, to information on the intracellular medium from cell cultures [1,2] and perfused organs or even whole organisms including man.