Deqiang Qiu1, David E. Rex1, Manojkumar Saranathan1, Robert M. Lober2, Greg Zaharchuk1, Michael E. Moseley1, Kristen W. Yeom1
1Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; 2Neurosurgery and Division of Child Neurology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
Functional MRI (fMRI) has commonly been performed using a T2*-based BOLD (Blood oxygenation level dependent) technique, which depends on complex interactions between multiple physiological processes and has inherent resolution limits due to sensitivity to large veins. In this paper, we present the first human demonstration of the use of blood pool agent gadofosveset trisodium (Ablavar) for functional T1-based blood volume MRI. Development of T1 contrast agent based fMRI will lead to high-resolution and distortion-free brain mapping techniques.