Cerebral Blood Flow & BOLD MRI During Isometric Exercise-Induced Increase in Blood Pressure

David A. Ravaee¹, Claudia Huerta¹, Hsiao-Ying Wey¹, Ai-Ling Lin¹, Timothy Duong¹

This study investigated the relation between perfusion pressure and cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the human brain using MRI during rest and isometric handgrip exercise. Basal CBF was 37 4 mL/100mL/min (N=4). Isometric exercise increased mean CBF, heart rate and mean arterial pressure (P<0.05), but not O2 saturation, end tidal CO2, or respiratory rate (P>0.1). A MRI approach provides objective quantitative CBF with a large field of view without depth limitation. fMRI during isometric exercise provides a unique means to study brain physiology and autoregulation free of potential adverse pharmacological effects.