title: In vivo assessment of human brainstem cerebrovascular function: a multi-inversion time pulsed arterial spin labelling study.
abstract: The brainstem (BS) is involved in critical physiologic processes, including control of cardiovascular and respiratory functions. This study implements a multi-inversion time pulsed arterial spin labelling (MTI PASL) imaging sequence that addresses the challenges of BS imaging and aims to measure normal and elevated BS perfusion in healthy volunteers. An initial experiment was performed to obtain the kinetic curve of the label in the BS and consequently to estimate the label arrival times and tissue perfusion in seven participants. A second experiment estimated the BS cerebral vascular reactivity (CVR) to hypercapnia in 10 participants. Images were acquired with a gradient-echo sequence with two spiral interleaves and short echo time (TE=2.7 ms). Data were analyzed with a two-compartment model, including a tissue and arterial component. In both experiments, perfusion in the BS was significantly lower than in cortical gray matter (repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA), P<0.05), which is as expected since the BS consists of gray and white matter, the latter typically showing lower perfusion. The BS CVR found here is comparable to previous reports obtained with positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. Multi-inversion time pulsed ASL in combination with a two-compartment signal model can be used to assess BS perfusion and CVR.
authors.affiliation: Cardiff University Brain Research and Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Esther A H
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Warnert
authors.affiliation: 1] Cardiff University Brain Research and Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK [2] Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA [3] F.M. Kirby Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Ashley D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Harris
authors.affiliation: Cardiff University Brain Research and Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Neeraj
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Neeta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tailor
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Nigel S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Judith E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: Cardiff University Brain Research and Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: Richard G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Wise
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D011859:Radiography