Victor E. Yushmanov1, Alexander Kharlamov1,
Tamer S. Ibrahim2,3, Tiejun Zhao4, Fernando E. Boada2,3,
Stephen C. Jones, 3,5
1Department of Anesthesiology,
Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 2Department
of Bioengineering; 3Department of Radiology, University of
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 4Siemens Medical
Solutions USA, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 5Departments of
Anesthesiology and Neurology, Allegheny-Singer Research Institute, Pittsburgh,
PA, United States
To
monitor K+ in the brain in vivo, 87Rb MRI in a rat
model of focal ischemic stroke was performed.
Rats pre-loaded with dietary Rb+ were subjected to MCAO,
and 87Rb MRI was implemented using a dedicated built in-house RF
coil and a spiral ultrashort-TE sequence (TR/TE of 3/0.07 ms). The data represent the worlds first
successful 87Rb MRI in vivo co-registered with an anatomic image,
and demonstrate the potential of 87Rb MRI at high fields (7 T) to
quantitatively assess the dynamics of K+ efflux from the ischemic
brain with 13-min temporal resolution in a single animal.