Abstract #0371

ASL imaging and 31P/1H-MRS during prolonged breath-hold among experienced freedivers: Insights into cerebrovascular and metabolic responses

Vera Catharina Keil¹, Henri Jan Mutsaerts^2,3,4, Lars Eichhorn⁵, Frank Träber¹, Wolfgang Block¹, Burkhard Mädler⁶, Kim van de Ven⁷, Jeroen C. Siero^2,8, Bradley J. MacIntosh³, Jan Petr⁹, Hans H. Schild¹, and Elke Hattingen¹

¹Department of Radiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany, ²Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, ³Sunnybrook Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ⁴Radiology Department, Amsterdam Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ⁵Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany, ⁶Philips Healthcare, Bonn, Germany, ⁷Philips Healthcare, Best, Netherlands, ⁸Spinoza Centre for Neuroimaging, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ⁹Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden, Germany

This pCASL and 31P/1H-MRS study explored the cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) and its efficacy on brain metabolic stability during a five-minute breath-hold in fifteen experienced freedivers. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) increase occurred later than the decrease of the recently discovered arterial transit time correlate, spatial CoV. The latter may thus be an early CVR biomarker. CBF varied between vessel territories, gray and white matter and usually lowered with more experience. MRS showed near stable physiological cerebral pCr, ATP and pH concentrations despite peripheral lactate acidosis. In conclusion, this trial revealed that CVR sufficiently compensates the metabolic challenge of a five minute breath-hold.

In conclusion, this trial revealed that cerebral perfusion increase sufficiently compensates the metabolic challenge of a five-minute breath-hold.

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