Differences in brain metabolites between patients with autism and mental retardation as detected by in vivo localized proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
We performed volume-selective proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) of the brain with a 1.5 T magnet in 28 patients with autism, and compared the results with those from 28 age-matched patients with unclassified mental retardation and 25 age-matched healthy children. Peaks for N-acetylaspartate, choline and creatine, but not lactate, were observed in each group on 1H-MRS. The N-acetylaspartate/choline ratio was lower in patients with mental retardation than in patients with autism and controls (P = .05, respectively). However, there were no differences in the N-acetylaspartate/ choline ratios between patients with autism and controls, and the N-acetylaspartate/creatine and choline/creatine ratios did not differ among the three groups. These results suggest that N-acetylaspartate is decreased in patients with mental retardation and that a disorder or dysfunction of neurons in the brain exists. There also appear to be differences in the brain lesions or dysfunctions found in patients with autism and mental retardation.
Hashimoto
T
T
Department of Pediatrics, University of Tokushima School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Tayama
M
M
Miyazaki
M
M
Yoneda
Y
Y
Yoshimoto
T
T
Harada
M
M
Miyoshi
H
H
Tanouchi
M
M
Kuroda
Y
Y
D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000032:analysis; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000378:metabolism*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002794:Choline / Q000032:analysis; D003401:Creatine / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000378:metabolism*; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008297:Male
D001224:Aspartic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate; D003401:Creatine; D002794:Choline