Jun-Cheng Weng1, Sheng-Kai Wu2, Feng-Yi Yang3,4, Win-Li Lin2,5, Wen-Yih I. Tseng1,6
1Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine and College of Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 3Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine and College of Engineering,, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 4Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; 5Medical Engineering Research Division, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan; 6Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
The purpose of this study was to find the optimum pulse sequence and timing of contrast-enhanced MRI that best indicate the BBB disruption in the presence of hemorrhage. Twelve rat brains were sonicated with center frequency of 1 MHz at four different doses of ultrasound contrast agent (0, 150, 300, and 450 μl/kg, three rats for each dose). T1WI spin echo and T1WI gradient echo sequences were performed at three time points, baseline, 10 min and 45 min after Gd-chelate T1-shortening administration. The degree of enhancement was quantified and correlated with the Evans blue staining. Our results showed that contrast-enhanced T1W spin echo sequence acquired at 10 min post contrast enhancement can reliably indicate the degree and location of the BBB disruption despite in the presence of hemorrhage.