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Recreational alcohol use induces changes in the concentrations of choline-containing compounds and total creatine in the brain: a 1H MRS study of healthy subjects

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Abstract

Objective

It has previously been reported that even social alcohol consumption affects the magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) signals of choline-containing compounds (tCho). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the consumption of alcohol affects the concentrations of the metabolites tCho, N-acetylaspartate, creatine, or myo-inositol and/or their T 2 relaxation times.

Materials and methods

1H MR spectra were obtained at 3 T from a frontal white matter voxel of 25 healthy subjects with social alcohol consumption (between 0 and 25.9 g/day). Absolute brain metabolite concentrations and T 2 relaxation times of metabolites were examined via MRS measurements at different echo times. Metabolite concentrations and their T 2 relaxation times were correlated with subjects’ alcohol consumption, controlling for age.

Results

We observed positive correlations of absolute tCho and phosphocreatine and creatine (tCr) concentrations with alcohol consumption but no correlation between any metabolite T 2 relaxation time and alcohol consumption.

Conclusions

This study shows that even social alcohol consumption affects the concentrations of tCho and tCr in cerebral white matter. Future studies assessing brain tCho and tCr levels should control for the confounding factor alcohol consumption.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded, in part, by the PhD Funding Program of the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg (Landesgraduiertenfoerderung, University of Heidelberg) and by the German Research Foundation (Z3 project of the SFB 636) (both were PhD stipends for the corresponding author).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

This study had been approved by the ethical committee of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Heidelberg and had therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. All participants gave their informed consent before participation in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroimaging, J5, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim/Heidelberg University, 68159, Mannheim, Germany

    Nuran Tunc-Skarka, Wolfgang Weber-Fahr & Gabriele Ende

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  1. Nuran Tunc-Skarka
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  2. Wolfgang Weber-Fahr
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  3. Gabriele Ende
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Correspondence to Nuran Tunc-Skarka.

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Tunc-Skarka, N., Weber-Fahr, W. & Ende, G. Recreational alcohol use induces changes in the concentrations of choline-containing compounds and total creatine in the brain: a 1H MRS study of healthy subjects. Magn Reson Mater Phy 28, 503–510 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-015-0486-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-015-0486-3

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