Ian D Driver1, Robert W Stobbe2, Richard G Wise1, and Christian Beaulieu2
1CUBRIC, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
We show for the first time that venous sodium
MRI signals in the human brain are elevated with respect to grey and white
matter in-vivo. These results have implications for studies using sodium MRI
signals to investigate pathologies such as stroke and cancer, with abnormal
cerebrovasculature. Observed signal changes in these groups may be partially due
to changes in vascular structure, rather than metabolic dysfunction or
disruption of cell integrity. Also, potential studies aiming to use sodium MRI
for direct detection of neuronal activity will need to account for functional
hyperaemia changing the venous sodium signal.
