Quantification of water content in biological tissues by proton nuclear magnetic resonance

We have made quantitative measurements of water content in biological tissue using proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). We evaluated the factors which affect the NMR signal intensity measurements in order to quantify the absolute water content of the tissue. It can be said that there is an optimum sample length to achieve the absolute value of water content using NMR. The integrated NMR water signal intensity was determined in the frequency domain. The absolute water content was measured gravimetrically. The NMR detectable water in brain and lung tissue was determined using the signal intensity of the analyzed tissue compared with the signal intensity for the same weight of distilled water. The NMR detectable water was 99% by weight for brain and 60% by weight for peripheral lung tissue. The NMR detectability of water in biological tissues varied for different tissues.