title: In vivo assessment of blood-spinal cord barrier permeability: serial dynamic contrast enhanced MRI of spinal cord injury.
abstract: Serial in vivo dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI studies were performed on spinal cord injured rats on post-injury Days 0, 10, 20 and 30 to determine the distribution of gadopentetate-dimeglumine (Gd) concentration in injured cord tissue. A two-compartment pharmacokinetic model was fitted to the time course of the concentration data at the epicenter of injury for each post-injury day. From these fits, the rates of the Gd transport between plasma and injured cord tissue were determined as a measure of blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) permeability. The results indicated that Gd transport rates decrease steadily with a concomitant improvement in motor functions of the rats with post-injury time. Specifically, the rates of Gd accumulation in injured SC tissue and its clearance correlated with the neurobehavioral scores with correlation coefficients of rho = -0.96 and -0.79, respectively, suggesting a significant link between the neurobehavioral function and the restoration of BSCB integrity as a result of the ongoing repair and recovery processes within the injured cords.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Texas at Houston Medical School, 6431 Fannin, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. mehmet.bilgen@uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bilgen
authors.forename: Bulent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dogan
authors.forename: Ponnada A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Narayana
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010539:Permeability; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media; D019786:Gadolinium DTPA