Blood Flux Imaging in Rodent Brain Using FENSI

Olivier Reynaud¹, Luisa Ciobanu¹

This study uses the FENSI technique as an alternative to ASL to characterize and quantify non-invasively tumor microvascular flux in a rat glioma model (9L). We highlight a significant increase (1248%) in tumor blood flux at early developmental stages (tumor size < 2mm). At late stages (tumor size > 3mm) we observe tumor compartmentalization with the presence of a hypovascularized core (5511L/min/cm) and a peripheral region presenting similar blood flux (8323L/min/cm) as the healthy contralateral side. The different regions found in our FENSI flux maps correlate well with histological results which reflect endothelial cell concentrations (CD31 staining).