Abstract #3146

Quantification of cerebral grey matter vascular and metabolic function in multiple sclerosis using dual-calibrated fMRI.

Hannah L Chandler¹, Rachael Stickland¹, Mike Germuska¹, Eleonora Patitucci ¹, Catherine Foster², Sharmila Khot¹, Neeraj Saxena¹, Valentina Tomassini^3,4, and Richard G Wise¹

¹Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ²Department of Physics, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada, ³Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, ⁴Helen Durham Centre for Neuroinflammation, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Dual-calibrated fMRI (dc-fMRI) relies on the simultaneous acquisition of BOLD and ASL during a respiratory challenge to quantitatively map cerebral blood flow (CBF), cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO₂), oxygen extraction fraction (OEF), cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) and effective oxygen diffusivity (D). Here, we use this method to investigate alterations in brain physiology in patients with multiple sclerosis (and matched healthy participants), demonstrating significant reductions in CBF and CMRO₂ per unit of remaining grey matter in patients. We suggest that this method not only provides novel markers of tissue dysfunction, it also extends the methodological armamentarium for non-invasive investigation of brain pathophysiology in disease.

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