title: A longitudinal study of cerebral blood flow under hypoxia at high altitude using 3D pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling.
abstract: Changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF) may occur with acute exposure to high altitude; however, the CBF of the brain parenchyma has not been studied to date. In this study, identical magnetic resonance scans using arterial spin labeling (ASL) were performed to study the haemodynamic changes at both sea level and high altitude. We found that with acute exposure to high altitude, the CBF in acute mountain sickness (AMS) subjects was higher (P < 0.05), while the CBF of non-AMS subjects was lower (P > 0.05) compared with those at sea level. Moreover, magnetic resonance angiography in both AMS and non-AMS subjects showed a significant increase in the cross-sectional areas of the internal carotid, basilar, and middle cerebral arteries on the first day at high altitude. These findings support that AMS may be related to increased CBF rather than vasodilation; these results contradict most previous studies that reported no relationship between CBF changes and the occurrence of AMS. This discrepancy may be attributed to the use of ASL for CBF measurement at both sea level and high altitude in this study, which has substantial advantages over transcranial Doppler for the assessment of CBF.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wenjia
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Tibet Military General Hospital, Lhasa, Tibet, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.|Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lou
authors.affiliation: GE Healthcare, MR Research China, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Dandan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: GE Healthcare, MR Research China, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Danny J J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000328:Adult; D000531:Altitude; D000532:Altitude Sickness / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001488:Basilar Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D020768:Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D013113:Spin Labels
chemical_list: D013113:Spin Labels; D010100:Oxygen