Abstract
Blood-oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) image contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been widely used in the field of functional imaging to interpret changes in focal brain activity in response to stimuli. The BOLD image contrast relies on activation-induced changes in the magnetic properties of blood (Ogawa et al, 1990; 1993a; 1993b; Shulman et al., 1993; Kennan et al., 1994). The presence of paramagnetic deoxyhemoglobin in the microvasculature creates a magnetic susceptibility difference between the vessels and the surrounding tissue, thus producing a microscopic magnetic field gradient. The microscopic field gradients affect the value of R2* (i.e., apparent transverse relaxation rate of tissue water) which can be mapped by a gradient-echo MRI sequence. The equilibrium between deoxy- and oxyhemoglobin can be shifted by altering the blood oxygenation, and since deoxy- and oxyhemoglobin are para- and diamagnetic, respectively, BOLD image contrast can be created, whereby hemoglobin acts as an endogenous MRI contrast agent. A BOLD functional MRI sequence measures the changes in R2* upon activation. The quantitative change in R2* is determined by parameters which influence the microscopic field gradient such as the geometry of vessels, static magnetic field strength, and the concentration of deoxyhemoglobin within the vessels (Ogawa et al., 1993a; 1993b; Kennan et al., 1994). The concentration of deoxyhemoglobin or the local blood oxygenation fraction (Y) in the microvasculature is determined by the regional values of cerebral metabolic rates of oxygen consumption (CMRO2), cerebral blood flow (CBF), and volume (CBV) (Ogawa et al., 1993a; 1993b; Kennan et al., 1994). While geometry and morphology of microvessels are important for the basal BOLD image contrast at a particular magnetic field strength, it is only the change in concentration of deoxyhemoglobin, due to a short-lived and/or transient physiological perturbation, that is important for being able to quantitate the BOLD signal change for functional MRI (see Appendix).
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Kida, I., Hyder, F., Kennan, R.P., Behar, K.L. (1999). Toward Absolute Quantitation of Bold Functional MRI. In: Eke, A., Delpy, D.T. (eds) Oxygen Transport to Tissue XXI. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 471. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4717-4_78
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