MULTIPLE QUANTUM NMR-SPECTROSCOPY METHODS FOR MEASURING THE APPARENT SELF-DIFFUSION COEFFICIENT OF INVIVO LACTIC-ACID

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy methods are presented for measuring the apparent self-diffusion coefficient of lactic acid in vivo. These techniques incorporate diffusion-sensitive gradients into multiple quantum NMR pulse sequences that are employed for spectral editing. Both diffusion-sensitive zero quantum (ZQ) and double quantum (DQ) spectral editing techniques have been developed and the DQ method has been used to measure the apparent self-diffusion coefficient of in vivo lactic acid in H-MESO-1 human tumor xenografts subcutaneously implanted in athymic mice.