Clinical studies using 31P and 1H MRS with a whole body 2.0 T MRI/MRS system are described. In most cases, techniques to quantitate absolute molar concentrations of metabolites in various organs were used. In the brain, AIDS, chronic stroke, and white matter lesions were associated with alterations of brain 31P metabolites. Epilepsy was associated with increased pH in the seizure focus. In the heart, dilated cardiomyopathy was associated with increased PDE/ATP while PCr/ATP was unchanged. In the liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis were associated with diminished hepatic ATP while alcoholic hepatitis had increased pH and cirrhosis had decreased pH. This allowed differentiation of normal liver, alcoholic hepatitis, and alcoholic cirrhosis without biopsy. In the prostate, malignancy was associated with increased PME/ATP and decreased PCr/ATP. The PME/PCr was greatly increased in malignant prostate with no overlap in normals. Other cancers outside the brain had increased PME and effective treatment was often associated with diminished PME. 1H MRS of the brain was performed using ISIS and outer volume suppression pulses for volume localization. Excellent high resolution 1H water-suppressed spectra were obtained at echo times as short as 30 ms, showing well resolved peaks for lactate, N-acetylaspartate, glutamate, choline, creatinine, and inositol. 1H MRS demonstrated that the uptake of ethanol by the brain was slower than the rise of ethanol in blood. 31P spectroscopic imaging of the brain with resolution of 2.25 x 2.25 x 2.5 cm produced metabolic images and high resolution spectra from desired regions of interest.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)