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Abstract #3976

The venous contribution to sodium (23Na) MRI signals in human brain

Ian D Driver1, Robert W Stobbe2, Richard G Wise1, and Christian Beaulieu2

1CUBRIC, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

We show for the first time that venous sodium MRI signals in the human brain are elevated with respect to grey and white matter in-vivo. These results have implications for studies using sodium MRI signals to investigate pathologies such as stroke and cancer, with abnormal cerebrovasculature. Observed signal changes in these groups may be partially due to changes in vascular structure, rather than metabolic dysfunction or disruption of cell integrity. Also, potential studies aiming to use sodium MRI for direct detection of neuronal activity will need to account for functional hyperaemia changing the venous sodium signal.

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