查看文章

N‐Acetylaspartate (NAA), which constitutes the major proportion of the dominant resonance in proton MR spectra of brain, is localized in mature brain exclusively in neurons and neuronal processes. A decrease in NAA has been observed in many cerebral pathologies and has usually been interpreted as an index of irreversible neuronal loss. The authors report a follow‐up study of six patients with acute brain damage (four from demyelinating lesion and two from mitochondrial encephalopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke‐like episodes [MELAS]). All patients underwent serial MR spectroscopy examinations. The four patients with acute demyelinating lesions initially showed decreases in NAA in the centers of the lesions that ranged between 34‐72% of values from homologous brain volumes in the other hemisphere. All four patients subsequently showed substantial recovery of NAA as their clinical status …