Xiang He1, Serter Gumus1, Ayaz Aghayev1, Dmitriy A. Yablonskiy2, Kyongtae Ty Bae1
1Department of Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; 2Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO, United States
In this study, MR qBOLD (quantitative BOLD) based approach has been utilized for the first time to provide regional, in-vivo quantification of the human skeletal muscle oxygen metabolism, i.e., oxygen extraction fraction (OEF). Our results in healthy human subjects demonstrate that the MSK qBOLD approach is capable of evaluating regional muscle OEF in baseline state, and oxygen metabolism changes after intensive exercise. The validness of the MSK qBOLD model has been further tested in the leg rotation study, which demonstrated the random orientation for qBOLD sensitive muscle vasculature (venules and small veins).