Abstract #1716

MRI Measures of Cerebral Blood Flow and Cerebrovascular Reactivity in the Developing Swine Brain

Jeff D. Winter¹, Stephanie Dorner², Joseph A. Fisher^3,4, Keith St. Lawrence^5,6, Andrea Kassner^1,7

¹Physiology and Experimental Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ²Respiratory Therapy, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ³Anaesthesiology, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ⁴Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; ⁵Imaging Division, Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada; ⁶Medical Biophysics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; ⁷Medical Imaging, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The swine model is an alternative to non-human primates for neuroimaging and may be suitable for studying pediatric cerebrovascular disorders. The aim of this study was to characterize swine cerebrovascular development using BOLD cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) and ASL cerebral blood flow (CBF). We acquired data from 13 juvenile (1-12 wk) pigs. BOLD-CVR measurements exhibited a significant logarithmic increase with body weight (Pearson r>0.81 and p<0.005 for all brain regions); whereas, baseline CBF was not related to body weight. Understanding these cerebrovascular changes will benefit future developmental studies using the swine as a translational model for cerebrovascular disease.