Methods and tools for diagnosing insulin resistance and assessing health status using nmr relaxation times for water

An apparatus for health-screening a subject comprising:

• a NMR or MRI instrument or portable device tuned to measure a particular nucleus selected from 1H, 2H, 3H or 17O;
• one or more computer readable storage media;
• a processing system;
• a data store contained on the one or more computer readable storage media comprising:
• one or more reference T2 relaxation times for water and a reference T1 relaxation times for water, for one or more of a sample type, wherein the reference T2 and/or reference T1 values are associated with a health status;
• program instructions for a health screening service stored on the one or more computer readable storage media that direct the processing system to:
• acquire an NMR data set, relaxation decay or recovery signal, using the NMR instrument, from a sample of a particular sample type from the subject;
• analyze the NMR data set or relaxation curve to extract a T2 relaxation time for water and/or a T1 relaxation time for water, or a surrogate of T2 or T1, such as T2* or water peak linewidth;
• identify the reference values for the particular sample type associated with the extracted T2 and/or T1 values or surrogate values and determine the health status associated with the reference values;
• and
• display a health score determined from the health status.

An apparatus comprising:

• one or more computer readable storage media;
• a processing system;
• program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media that direct the processing system to:
• obtain an NMR data set or relaxation decay or recovery curve from a sample obtained from a subject, wherein the data set or relaxation curve was obtained using a NMR instrument tuned to measure a particular nucleus selected from 1H, 2H, 3H or 17O;
• analyze the NMR data set or relaxation decay curve to extract a T2 relaxation time for water and/or a T1 relaxation time for water or a surrogate of water T2 or T1, such as T2* or water peak linewidth;
• determine a health status value of the subject, wherein the health status is determined from water T1 and/or T2 values, or surrogates therefor, from the sample;
• and
• store the water T2 and/or T1 values, or surrogates therefor, in association with the health status in a data store contained on the one or more computer readable storage media.