Nonlinear Model for Preprocessing of Cerebral Blood Volume Weighted Functional MRI Data and for Evaluating Pharmacokinetic Properties of USPIO

Adriana Teodora Perles-Barbacaru¹, Daniel Procissi¹, Andrey Valentinovich Demyanenko¹, Russell E. Jacobs¹

In cerebral blood volume (CBV) weighted pharmacological MRI (phMRI), the R₂*-weighted signal is a nonlinear function of the USPIO concentration in tissue that changes with cerebral activity. The signal recovery caused by USPIO elimination from the blood pool is modeled to assay the USPIO dependent functional sensitivity of the technique and to establish its applicability to study psychoactive drugs in mouse models of disease. The relaxivities and pharmacokinetic properties of three USPIO (MION, MoldayION and P904) are derived and maps of the CBV response to cocaine in mice are computed.