Despite recent
advances in measuring ATP energy metabolism using 31P magnetization
transfer, there is still a lack of localized techniques
capable of assessing the regional ATP synthesis. The importance of measuring
regional ATP rates and fluxes in the human brain is highlighted by the
heterogeneity in normal brain functions and also in many cerebral metabolic
abnormalities. In
this study, we demonstrate that, by combining wide-band inversion transfer
with image selected in vivo spectroscopy (ISIS), quantitative
information regarding ATP synthesis reaction Pi ==> γ-ATP can be obtained
from the localized regions in the human brain.