The role of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in clinical medicine

This article presents a view which emphasises the particular perspective of a clinician who has close involvement in magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and is directed towards readers who wish to understand the likely role of MRS in clinical medicine. Many more complete reviews already exist, including two review articles from our group. Another review would hardly be justifiable and those readers seeking such an article should consult Refs. 1–5. This will be more in the nature of a personal overview of the topic and one which will touch upon some of the problems which accrue from the interactions of scientists with little appreciation of clinical medicine with clinicians who have little understanding of the complexities of the NMR experiment. Moreover, the discussion will be confined to situations where MRS is likely to impinge directly on problems of day-to-day clinical management, as opposed to situations where the results of MRS research lead to an improved understanding of particular disease states, but where there is no need for each and every patient who is a potential benificiary of the technique to undergo an MRS examination.