Objective: To investigate the biochemical metabolic changes detected by phosphorus-31 MR spectroscopy (~(31)P MRS) with pathologic changes in the liver of fasting rabbits. Methods: A total of 22 rabbits were under the starvation up to death to establish animal models.Hepatic ~(31)P MRS was performed in different period of 10 rabbits including normal condition,over-starvation,agonal condition and death after 30 min.Other 9 rabbits were divided into three type including over-starvation,agonal condition and death group with 3 rabbits in each group,and 3 healthy rabbits served as controls.All the 12 rabbits were sacrificed for the hepatic pathological examination.The MR examination was performed on a 1.5 T imager using a 1H/31P surface coil by the 2D chemical shift imaging technique.The relative quantities of phosphomonoesters (PME),phosphodiesters (PDE),inorganic phosphate (Pi) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were measured. Results: All the relative quantification of phosphorus metabolites were changed significantly from starvation to death (χ~2 ＝23.13-35.41,P<0.01).The relative quantifications of ATP of normal condition,over-starvation,agonal condition and death were 2.54±0.53,1.73±0.14,0.88±0.23 and 0.05±0.08,respectively (r_s=1.0,P<0.01).The relative quantifications of PDE from normal to death were 1.25±0.54,2.76±0.23,3.33±0.49 and 3.87±0.43,respectively,and those of Pi were 0.42±0.02,0.65±0.05,0.89±0.15 and 0.99±0.08,respectively (r_s= 1.0,P<0.01).The relative quantifications of PME were also significantly changed (r_s=0.4,P=0.6).The pathologic changes of normal condition,over-starvation,agonal condition and death:decreased size of hepatocytes,loss of cell number,cellular swelling,degeneration and cell necrosis or hepatic hemorrhage became more and more pronounced.Conclusion: ~(31)P MRS can monitor dynamic changes of relative quantification of phosphorus metabolites,which are correlated with the pathological severity of acute hepatic injury by fasting.