Measuring Cerebral Hypoperfusion Induced by Hyperventilation Challenge With Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Healthy Volunteers.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility to assess cerebral hypoperfusion with a hyperventilation (HV) challenge protocol using intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) magnetic resonance imaging.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

Magnetic resonance imaging experiments were performed on 10 healthy volunteers at 1.5 T, with a diffusion IVIM magnetic resonance imaging protocol using a set of b-values optimized by Cramer-Rao Lower Bound analysis. Hypoperfusion was induced by an HV maneuver. Measurements were performed in normoventilation and HV conditions. Biexponential curve fitting was used to obtain the perfusion fraction (f), pseudodiffusion coefficient (D*), and the product fD* in gray matter (GM) regions of interest (ROIs). Regional cerebral blood flow in the same ROIs was also assessed with arterial spin labeling.

RESULTS

The HV challenge led to a diminution of IVIM perfusion-related parameters, with a decrease of f and fD* in the cerebellum (P = 0.03 for f; P = 0.01 for fD*), thalamus GM (P = 0.09 for f; P = 0.01 for fD*), and lenticular nuclei (P = 0.03 for f; P = 0.02 for fD*). Mean GM cerebral blood flow (in mL/100 g tissue/min) measured with arterial spin labeling averaged over all ROIs also decreased (normoventilation: 42.7 ± 4.1 vs HV: 33.2 ± 2.2, P = 0.004) during the HV challenge.

CONCLUSIONS

The optimized IVIM protocol proposed in the current study allows for measurements of cerebral hypoperfusion that might be of great interest for pathologies diagnosis such as ischemic stroke.