Determination of the Chemical-Shift Difference between the Lactate Multiplets and Its pH Dependence

A volume-selective NMR method is presented for very exact determination of the difference of the Larmor frequencies between the coupled resonances of homonuclear AX3 spin systems, as, for example, lactate. The frequency difference can be determined with an accuracy of 0.003 ppm even if only the doublet of the spin system can be detected. The method is based on the effects of homonuclear polarization transfer which occurs in localized double-spin-echo spectroscopy. It is used for determination of the chemical-shift difference of the lactate multiplets, which depends on the degree of dissociation and consequently on pH. Measurements were performed with a 1.5 T Siemens Magnetom SP 63 whole-body imager on solutions of lactate and acetic acid in physiological sodium chloride solution with pH from 1 to 11. As a consequence of these measurements, conclusions are possible for the optimum echo time for PRESS measurements which avoid signal losses from polarization transfer. Furthermore, the possibility of localized pH determination by this effect is discussed.