Proton overhauser enhancements in human cardiac phosphorus NMR spectroscopy at 1.5 T

Narrowband irradiation of water protons with a surface coil yields significant nuclear Overhauser enhancement (nOe) of phosphocreatine (PCr) and some adenosine triphosphate (ATP) moieties in localized and unlocalized phosphorus (³¹P) NMR spectra from chest and heart muscle. In seven normal subjects at 1.5 T the nOe values were 0.6 ± 0.3, 0.6 ± 0.3, 0 ± 0.3, and 0.3 ± 0.2 for myocardial PCr, γ‐ATP, α‐ATP, and β‐ATP, respectively, not significantly different from those in chest muscle. Distortion of the measured PCr/ATP ratios due to differences in the nOe may require accurate correction to realize the full benefit of the effect in studies involving quantitative intergroup comparisons. © 1992 Academic Press, Inc.