• Ulrike Nöth, Guy E Meadows, Futoshi Kotajima, Ralf Deichmann, Douglas R Corfield, and Robert Turner.
• Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK. noeth@gsf.de
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2006 Dec 1; 24 (6): 1229-35.

PurposeTo compare the quantification of cerebral blood flow (CBF) at 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla, under normo- and hypercapnia, and to determine the cerebral vascular response (CVR) of gray matter (GM) to hypercapnia, a pulsed arterial spin labeling technique was used. Additionally, to improve GM CBF quantification a high-resolution GM-mask was applied.Materials And MethodsCBF was determined with the QUIPSS II with thin slice TI1 periodic saturation (Q2TIPS) sequence at 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla in the same group of eight subjects, both under normocapnia and hypercapnia. Absolute GM-CBF maps were calculated using a GM-mask obtained from a high-resolution structural scan by segmentation. The CVR to hypercapnia was derived from the quantitative GM-CBF maps.ResultsFor both field strengths, the GM-CBF was significantly higher under hypercapnia compared to normocapnia. For both conditions, there was no significant difference of GM-CBF for 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla; the same applies to the CVR, which was 4.3 and 4.5%/mmHg at 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla, respectively.ConclusionThe method presented allows for the quantification of CBF and CVR in GM at the common clinical field strengths of 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla and could therefore be a useful tool to study these parameters under physiological and pathophysiological conditions.(c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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