ABSOLUTE METABOLITE QUANTIFICATION BY IN-VIVO NMR-SPECTROSCOPY - I - INTRODUCTION, OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES OF A CONCERTED ACTION IN BIOMEDICAL-RESEARCH

By utilizing achievements and results of two previous concerted resear ch projects on magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy (MRS), the EU BIOMED 1 Concerted Action on ''Cancer and brain disease characteriz ation and therapy assessment by quantitative MRS'' was specifically ai med at: 1) developing at a multicentre level harmonized methodologies and protocols for quantitative and reproducible MRS measurements, as a basis for validating these procedures in well controlled clinical and experimental conditions; and 2) providing multicentre critical review s on the present understanding of the significance of MRS parameters a s possible new markers of diagnosis, prognosis and response to therapy . The programme comprised the following main areas of collaborative re search and multicentre evaluation: a) development of methods and proto cols for quality assessment, calibration and absolute metabolite quant ification in in vivo localized, volume-selective MRS; b) design and va lidation of a new method for assessing localization performance in spe ctroscopic imaging (MRSI); c) interlaboratory comparison of different methods of signal processing and data analysis, for improving signal q uantification in vivo and in vitro MRS spectra; d) quality assessment of high resolution MRS analyses of biological fluids; e) protocol for assembling a pilot data base of MR spectra of tumour extracts for patt ern recognition analysis; f) multicentre review on evaluation of the s ignificance of MRS parameters in monitoring lipid metabolism and funct ion in cancer; and g) multicentre review on evaluation of drug pharmac okinetics and metabolism using MRS, The main results and conclusions o f four multi-centre trials on items (a), (b) and (c), which involved 2 4 teams, are reported in the accompanying papers of this series. (C) 1 998 Elsevier Science Inc.