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Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (blood + oxygenation_level_dependent)
Selected AbstractsDifferential interictal activity of the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex revealed by resting state functional MRI at 3T in generalized vs.JOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Issue 6 2008Partial seizure Abstract Purpose To characterize, using functional MRI (fMRI), the pattern of active brain regions in the resting state in patients with epilepsy. Materials and Methods We studied 28 patients with epilepsy, divided into a partial seizure (PS; N = 9) and a generalized seizure group (GS; N = 19), and 34 control subjects. Resting state fMRI was performed using a GE 3T scanner by collecting 200 volumes of echo-planar imaging (EPI) images with subjects relaxed, eyes closed. Data were processed using a modification of the method of Fransson (Hum Brain Mapp 2005;26:15,29), which reveals information on regional low-frequency Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signal oscillations in the resting state without any a priori hypothesis. The significant active areas in brain were identified with both individual and group analysis. Results Controls showed active regions in the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)/ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC), theregions associated with the brain "default mode." Similar active regions were observed in PS, whereas GS showed no significant activation of precuneus/PCC. Conclusion In GS, the lack of activation in precuneus/PCC may partly account for their more severe interictal deficits, compared to PS, in cognitive functions such as concentration and memory. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2008;27:1214,1220. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Tumor R2* is a prognostic indicator of acute radiotherapeutic response in rodent tumorsJOURNAL OF MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, Issue 4 2004Loreta M. Rodrigues MSc Abstract Purpose To test the prognostic potential of tumor R2* with respect to radiotherapeutic outcome. Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) MRI images are sensitive to changes in deoxyhemoglobin concentration through the transverse MRI relaxation rate R2* of tissue water, hence the quantitative measurement of tumor R2* may be related to tissue oxygenation. Methods and Materials Tumor growth inhibition in response to radiation was established for both GH3 prolactinomas and RIF-1 fibrosarcomas with animals breathing either air or carbogen during radiation. In a separate cohort, the baseline R2* and carbogen (95% O2, 5% CO2)-induced ,R2* of rat GH3 prolactinomas and murine RIF-1 fibrosarcomas were quantified using multigradient echo (MGRE) MRI prior to radiotherapy, and correlated with subsequent tumor growth inhibition in response to ionizing radiation, while the animals breathed air. Results A radiation dose of 15 Gy caused pronounced growth delay in both tumor models and transient regression of the GH3 prolactinomas. When the animals breathed carbogen during radiation, the growth delay/regression was enhanced only in the GH3 prolactinomas. The GH3 prolactinomas, which exhibit a relatively fast baseline R2* and large ,R2* in response to carbogen breathing prior to radiotherapy, showed a substantial reduction in normalized tumor volume to 66 ± 3% with air breathing and 36 ± 5% with carbogen seven days after 15 Gy irradiation. In contrast, the effect of 15 Gy on the RIF-1 fibrosarcomas, which give a relatively slow baseline R2* and negligible ,R2* response to carbogen prior to treatment, showed a much smaller growth inhibition (143 ± 3% with air, 133 ± 12% with carbogen). Conclusion Quantitation of tumor R2* and carbogen-induced ,R2* by MGRE MRI provides completely noninvasive prognostic indicators of a potential acute radiotherapeutic response. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2004;19:482,488. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Perfusion-based functional magnetic resonance imaging,CONCEPTS IN MAGNETIC RESONANCE, Issue 1 2003Afonso C. Silva Abstract The measurement of cerebral blood flow (CBF) is a very important way of assessing tissue viability, metabolism, and function. CBF can be measured noninvasively with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by using arterial water as a perfusion tracer. Because of the tight coupling between neural activity and CBF, functional MRI (fMRI) techniques are having a large impact in defining regions of the brain that are activated due to specific stimuli. Among the different fMRI techniques, CBF-based fMRI has the advantages of being specific to tissue signal change, a critical feature for quantitative measurements within and across subjects, and for high-resolution functional mapping. Unlike the conventional blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) technique, the CBF change is an excellent index of the magnitude of neural activity change. Thus, CBF-based fMRI is the tool of choice for longitudinal functional imaging studies. A review of the principles and theoretical backgrounds of both continuous and pulsed arterial spin labeling methods for measuring CBF is presented, and a general overview of their current applications in the field of functional brain mapping is provided. In particular, examples of the use of CBF-based fMRI to investigate the fundamental hemodynamic responses induced by neural activity and to determine the signal source of the most commonly used BOLD functional imaging are reviewed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts Magn Reson 16A: 16,27, 2003 [source] Coexistence of symptomatic focal and absence seizures: Video-EEG and EEG-fMRI evidence of overlapping but independent epileptogenic networksEPILEPSIA, Issue 7 2009Serge Chassagnon Summary The distinction between typical absences and hypomotor seizures in patients having frontal lesions is difficult. In focal epilepsy, generalized-like interictal discharges can reflect either a coexistent generalized epileptic trait or a secondary bilateral synchrony. Using combined measures of the EEG and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) activity, we studied a 50-year-old patient with both absence-like and symptomatic focal motor seizures. Focal activity induced activation in the lesional area and deactivation in the contralateral central cortex. Generalized spike-and-wave discharges (GSWDs) resulted also in perilesional activation, and multifocal symmetrical cortical and thalamic activations, and deactivation in associative cortical areas. Although the central cortex was involved during both types of epileptic activity, electroencephalography (EEG),functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) revealed distinct neuronal networks at the time of the focal or generalized discharges, allowing a clear-cut differentiation of the generators. Whether the patient had distinct epileptic syndromes or distinct electrographic patterns from the lesional trigger remains debatable. [source] Functional MRI of the visual cortex and visual testing in patients with previous optic neuritisEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 3 2002A. R. Langkilde The volume of cortical activation as detected by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in the visual cortex has previously been shown to be reduced following optic neuritis (ON). In order to understand the cause of this change, we studied the cortical activation, both the size of the activated area and the signal change following ON, and compared the results with results of neuroophthalmological testing. We studied nine patients with previous acute ON and 10 healthy persons served as controls using fMRI with visual stimulation. In addition to a reduced activated volume, patients showed a reduced blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal increase and a greater asymmetry in the visual cortex, compared with controls. The volume of visual cortical activation was significantly correlated to the result of the contrast sensitivity test. The BOLD signal increase correlated significantly to both the results of the contrast sensitivity test and to the Snellen visual acuity. Our results indicate that fMRI is a useful method for the study of ON, even in cases where the visual acuity is severely impaired. The reduction in activated volume could be explained as a reduced neuronal input; however, the greater asymmetry might point to a cortical reorganization as a consequence of neuronal damage. Future fMRI studies in ON will add to the understanding of the neural adaptive behaviour following ON. [source] Blunted Rostral Anterior Cingulate Response During a Simplified Decoding Task of Negative Emotional Facial Expressions in Alcoholic PatientsALCOHOLISM, Issue 9 2007Jasmin B. Salloum Background:, Alcoholism is characterized by deficits in emotional functioning as well as by deficits in cognitive functioning. However, most brain imaging research on alcoholism has focused on cognition rather than emotion. Method:, We used an event-related functional magnetic imaging approach to examine alcoholics' brain blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response to evaluation of emotional stimuli and to compare their response to that of nonalcoholic controls. The task used was a simplified variant of a facial emotion-decoding task in which subjects determined the intensity level of a target emotion displayed as a facial expression. Facial expressions of happy, sad, anger, disgust, and fear were used as stimuli. Results:, Alcoholics and controls did not differ in accurately identifying the intensity level on the simple emotional decoding task but there were significant differences in their BOLD response during evaluation of facial emotion. In general, alcoholics showed less brain activation than nonalcoholic controls. The greatest differences in activation were during decoding of facial expressions of fear and disgust during which alcoholics had significantly less activation than controls in the affective division of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Alcoholics also had significantly less activation than controls in the affective division of the ACC, while viewing sad faces. Only to facial expressions of anger did the alcoholics show significant activation in the affective ACC and in this case, their BOLD response did not significantly differ from that of the controls. Conclusion:, Alcoholics show a deficit in the function of the affective division of the ACC during evaluation of negative facial emotions that can serve as cues for flight or avoidance. This deficit may underlie some of the behavioral dysfunction in alcoholism. [source] Mapping at glomerular resolution: fMRI of rat olfactory bulbMAGNETIC RESONANCE IN MEDICINE, Issue 3 2002Ikuhiro Kida Abstract The rat olfactory bulb contains ,2000 functional units called glomeruli which are used to recognize specific characteristics of odorants. Activity localization of individual glomerulae (,0.002 ,L) has important consequences for understanding mechanisms in olfactory information encoding. High-resolution functional MRI (fMRI) data from the rat olfactory bulb are presented using the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) method at 7 T. Either individual or clusters of fMRI voxels suggestive of activity in the olfactory nerve and glomerular layers were reproducibly detected with repeated 2-min exposures of iso-amyl acetate at spatial resolution of 0.001,0.003 ,L. The importance of glomerular clustering for olfaction and the implications of BOLD mapping with even higher spatial resolution (i.e., ,0.001 ,L voxels) are discussed. High-resolution in vivo mapping of the rat olfactory bulb with fMRI at high magnetic field promises to provide novel data for understanding olfaction. Magn Reson Med 48:570,576, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Using forward calculations of the magnetic field perturbation due to a realistic vascular model to explore the BOLD effectNMR IN BIOMEDICINE, Issue 6 2008José P. Marques Abstract This paper assesses the reliability of the infinite cylinder model used previously in the literature to simulate blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signal changes. A three-dimensional finite element method was applied to a realistic model of the cortical vasculature, and the results compared with those generated from a simple model of the vasculature as a set of independent, randomly oriented, infinite cylinders. The realistic model is based on scanning electron microscopy measurements of the terminal vascular bed in the superficial cortex of the rat. Good agreement is found between the two models with regard to the extravascular R2* and R2 dependence on the cerebral blood volume and blood oxygenation fraction. Using the realistic model, it is also possible to gain further understanding of the relative importance of intravascular and extravascular BOLD contrast. A simple parameterisation of the dependence of the relaxation rates on relative cerebral blood volume and blood,tissue susceptibility difference was carried out, allowing discussion of the variation in the form of the haemodynamic response with field strength. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Endogenous functional CBV contrast revealed by diffusion weightingNMR IN BIOMEDICINE, Issue 8 2006Todd B. Harshbarger Abstract Functional MRI (fMRI) based on the blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast often suffers from a lack of specificity because of the vascular spread of oxygenation changes. It is suggested from the optical imaging and animal fMRI literature that cerebral blood volume (CBV) changes are more closely tied to the smaller vessels. As such, fMRI contrast based on CBV changes will have improved spatial specificity to the neuronal activities as they are immediately adjacent to the smaller vessels. In this paper, an endogenous contrast mechanism based on a diffusion weighting strategy that could detect functional CBV changes is presented. Initially, a theoretical framework is presented to model the functional signal changes as a function of CBV under diffusion weighting, which predicts peak CBV sensitivity at various vessel,tissue mixtures. It was found that a b factor over 1500,s/mm2 would be necessary to achieve dominant CBV contrast. Further, two sets of experimental results are also presented. In the first experiment, diffusion weighting at a set of b factors ranging from 300 to 600,s/mm2 was used. The results indicated that while the positive activation (predominantly BOLD signal) continued to reduce in magnitude and spatial extent, the negative activation (predominantly CBV signal) remained virtually constant with increasing b factors. The second experiment used a b factor of 1600,s/mm2 and showed extensive negative activation in the visual cortex and greatly reduced positive activations compared with images with no diffusion weighting. The time course of negative activation showed a faster time to peak and return to baseline than the positive BOLD activity, consistent with the small vessel origin of the signal changes. These results suggest that appropriate diffusion weighting could be used to measure activation related CBV changes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||