Magnetic resonance spectroscopy in patients with Fabry and Gaucher disease.
OBJECTIVE
Fabry and Gaucher diseases are rare progressive inherited disorders of glycosphingolipid metabolism that affect multiple organ systems. The aim of this study was to investigate evidence for metabolic changes in the central nervous system involvement using proton magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging.


METHODS
Seven Fabry and eight Gaucher patients were included into this study. A two-dimensional, spectroscopic imaging method with an ultra-short echo-time of 11 ms was used at a 3T whole body magnet. Absolute metabolic values were retrieved using internal water scaling. Results were compared, with sex- and age-matched controls.


RESULTS
In contrast to previous findings, absolute and relative metabolite values of N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) or NAA/Creatine (Cr), Cr, Choline (Cho) or Cho/Cr and myo-Inositol (mI) or mI/Cr revealed no, differences between Fabry and Gaucher Type 1 (GD1) patients and controls. Average values were, 10.22, 6.32, 2.15 and 5.39 mMol/kg wet weight for NAA, Cr, Cho and mI, respectively. In this study, we found significantly decreasing NAA/Cho with increasing age in all three groups (Fabry, GD1, patients and healthy controls) (between 5 and 8% per decade).


CONCLUSIONS
There were no changes of the quantified metabolites detected by MRS in normal appearing white matter. This study shows the importance of sex- and age-matched controls.
Department of Radiology, MR-Centre of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. stephan@nmr.at
S
S
Gruber
W
W
Bogner
A
A
Stadlbauer
M
M
Krssak
O
O
Bodamer
D000328:Adult; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002794:Choline / Q000378:metabolism; D003401:Creatine / Q000378:metabolism; D000795:Fabry Disease / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005776:Gaucher Disease / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007294:Inositol / Q000378:metabolism; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D001224:Aspartic Acid; D007294:Inositol; C000179:N-acetylaspartate; D003401:Creatine; D002794:Choline