Abstract #0718

Sensitivity of CASL MRI to Quantitative Regional and Global Changes Associated with Pain

Michael Froelich¹, Hrishikesh Deshpande², Tim J. Ness¹, Beverly Corbitt², Rajiv Menon³, Jan den Hollander⁴, Georg Deutsch⁵

¹Anesthesiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; ²Radiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; ³Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; ⁴Vascular Cardiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States; ⁵Radiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States

The imaging of cerebral activity associated with pain and painful states has important implications for the study of clinical pain syndromes, including potentially providing objective biomarkers in studies complicated by the ambiguities of subjective report. We present preliminary data showing quantitative rCBF changes using CASL based rCBF in normal subjects during three pain conditions involving heat, ischemic and cold presser pain conditions. Robust changes were recorded in thalamic and peri-rolandic as well as in mean hemispheric cortical rCBF during each condition, with the cold presser task inducing significantly greater absolute increases in thalamic and mean cortical activity.