Deuterium enrichment of plasma determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: dilution kinetics of 2H2O and estimation of total body water.

We demonstrate the feasibility of quantifying the abundance of 2H in plasma by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. After adding internal standard (tert-butyl-d9 alcohol) to deproteinized plasma samples containing 2H2O, we determined the ratio of NMR peak areas for 2H2O and tert-butyl-d9 alcohol. This peak-area ratio was directly proportional to the exogenous 2H enrichment of plasma (difference between measured and naturally occurring 2H) between 0 and 0.272 atom % (r = 0.999). The coefficient of variation was 1.34% at an exogenous enrichment of 0.136 atom %. We applied this method to a study of the dilution kinetics of 2H2O to determine the optimal time and method of blood sampling for estimation of total body water content. The 2H enrichment of plasma stabilized by 4 h after intravenous injection of 2H2O, 1 g/kg of body weight, and fluctuated within 2-4% of the 4- to 8-h mean thereafter.