Cerebrovascular Reactivity (CVR) Mapping in Patients with Low Grade Gliomas Undergoing Presurgical Mapping with BOLD FMRI

Domenico Zac¹, Jay J. Pillai¹

Angiogenesis in high grade gliomas often causes neurovascular uncoupling (NVU), making detection of eloquent cortex near these lesions difficult by BOLD fMRI. Little is known about the prevalence of NVU in low grade gliomas not characterized by angiogenesis. In this study 8 patients with low grade gliomas demonstrated ipsilesional reduced motor activation and reduced cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) following a breath hold (BH) task compared to contralesional homologous areas. These results demonstrate the impact of NVU on presurgical BOLD fMRI activation maps in these patients and the utility of BH CVR for detection of potential NVU.