Adrienne Lee1, Benjamin Rowland1, Huijun Liao1, Ana Maria Grizales2, Allison Goldfine2, and Alexander Lin1
1Center for Clinical Spectroscopy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, 2Research Division, Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, MA, United States
Proton magnetic
resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is an accurate, noninvasive method used to monitor
intrahepatic triglyceride (IHTG) levels in four patients undergoing
betaine treatment for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Comparison of results in two of the patients
with lower IHTG levels at baseline showed a decrease or improvement after
betaine supplementation. However, two subjects with baseline elevated levels of IHTG
did not show an improvement and in fact showed higher IHTG levels. Reproducibility of primary lipid vs secondary
lipid measurements were also obtained and demonstrated high and low
reproducibility, respectively.
