Kelly Ann Townsend1, Randy L. King1,
Greg Zaharchuk2, Kim Butts Pauly1,2
1Bioengineering, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA, United States; 2Radiology, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA, United States
The
purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of unfocused ultrasound
on blood-brain barrier opening across the whole brain using contract
enhanced-MRI. T1-weighted FSE images of the brain were acquired in rats for
several minutes after gadolinium administration and unfocused ultrasound
whole brain treatment. Signal
increased immediately after sonication, and continued to increase in the
brain as time passed, while muscle signal decreased due to washout. Our
findings demonstrate that unfocused ultrasound sonication can disrupt the
blood-brain barrier across the whole brain, including cortex and deep grey
matter nuclei. This can be observed using contrast-enhanced MRI.