PROTON NUCLEAR-MAGNETIC-RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY MEASUREMENTS OF METHYLENE AND METHYL LINE WIDTHS IN PLASMA - SIGNIFICANT VARIATIONS WITH EXTENT OF BREAST-CANCER, DURATION OF PREGNANCY AND AGING

The composite methylene (chemical shift range 1.2-1.4 ppm) and methyl (0.8-0.9 ppm) resonances of the H-1 NMR spectrum were analyzed in plasma samples from breast tumor patients, pregnant women, and healthy subjects. Using a 500 MHz NMR instrument operating at 25-degrees-C, the peaks were analyzed for line width at half height and then averaged. A statistically significant difference (p < 0.001) was found between the average (mean +/- SD) line width in the plasma samples from the 30 patients with metastatic breast cancer (34.1 +/- 5.0 Hz) and the controls matched for age and sex (38.7 +/- 4.4 Hz). In the 16 patients with localized breast cancer and the 16 with regional spread, the average line width was not different from that of matched controls. In 21 patients with benign tumor in the breast, the average line width was not different from that of matched controls. A difference in the average line width was found between 31 pregnant women in the third trimester (32.5 +/- 3.4 Hz) and their controls matched for age and sex (42.7 +/- 4.6 Hz) (p < 0.001). The average line width was lower in the late (31.5 +/- 3.3) than in the early (34.5 +/- 2.5 Hz) part of the third trimester (p = 0.022). In 54 healthy male and 130 healthy female controls, line widths declined gradually with increasing age by decades, except in the fifth decade for the men and the sixth decade for the women. The observations are consistent with an association between 'stage' in a most general sense and the apparent NMR lipid line widths, probably accounted for by a variation in plasma lipids.