Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>The purpose of this work was to investigate the temporal relationship between intensity changes in <jats:italic>T</jats:italic><jats:sub>2</jats:sub>*‐weighted NMR images and tissue oxygen content, measured by myoglobin proton NMR spectroscopy, in the skeletal muscle. During an ischemic stress test, the calf muscles of five healthy volunteers were studied at 3 Tesla. An interleaved NMRI‐NMRS sequence was used, which made it possible to record <jats:italic>T</jats:italic><jats:sub>2</jats:sub>*‐weighted images and myoglobin spectra simultaneously. During ischemia, rapid changes in muscle signal intensity were observed on <jats:italic>T</jats:italic><jats:sub>2</jats:sub>*‐weighted images, which immediately preceded myoglobin desaturation. Bearing in mind the respective P<jats:sub>50</jats:sub> of hemoglobin and myoglobin, this observation clearly favored the hypothesis that hemoglobin desaturation was responsible for the changes in <jats:italic>T</jats:italic><jats:sub>2</jats:sub>*. This interpretation was further supported by the temporal coincidence between the experimental NMR data and a model of hemoglobin desaturation solely derived from physiological considerations.</jats:p>