Proton MR spectroscopic studies of chronic alcohol exposure on the rat brain.

Purpose: To better understand the long-term pathophysiologic mechanisms of alcoholism-related organic brain damage by serially assessing brain metabolites in chronically exposed rats using both in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and high-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) from brain extracts.

Materials And Methods: The alcoholic regimen was continued up to 60 weeks. In vivo proton MRS studies were performed at 200 MHz using a small animal imaging/spectrometer.