Coupling constants in proton systems provide access to useful structur
al information, Several methods have been proposed to measure these co
nstants in high-resolution spectra, but many of them are not well suit
ed when the coupling constants are comparable to the spectral linewidt
h. In such a case the measurement of the apparent splitting, obtained
from conventional NMR or from two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy
(COSY), fan cause a miscalculation of the true coupling constant valu
e, In this work, data processing for extracting small coupling constan
ts is described. Signals are obtained from spin-echo experiments and a
nalysed in the time domain in such a way that couplings are apparently
multiplied by n + 1, where n is positive. Small coupling constants in
4-methyl-1,3-dioxane were obtained by this method. (C) 1997 by John W
iley & Sons, Ltd.