In vivo nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy applied to medicine.

The author describes the medical diagnostic and research context into which in vivo nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy promises to fit. The different constraints and possibilities of in vivo NMR are contrasted with those of conventional in vitro NMR spectroscopy. To illustrate the discussion, examples are given of the roles that phosphorus-31 spectroscopy plays in the evaluation of energy metabolism, that the editing of proton (1H) spectra plays in the observation of individual metabolites such as lactate, and that natural-abundance carbon-13 spectroscopy might play in the investigation of fat metabolism.