Abstract #4735

MRI submerging into The Big Blue: A comparative 3D-pCASL and IVIM-MRI brain perfusion study to elucidate circulatory adaptation during prolonged freediving

Vera Catharina Keil¹, Lars Eichhorn², Burkhard Mädler³, Jürgen Gieseke³, Frank Träber¹, Wolfgang Block¹, Martin Alois Sprinkart¹, Andreas Müller¹, Christine Schneider⁴, Lukas Scheef¹, Hans Heinz Schild¹, Dariusch Reza Hadizadeh¹, and Elke Hattingen¹

¹Department of Radiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany, ²Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany, ³Clinical Science Department, Philips Healthcare, Germany, ⁴Department of Neurology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Freedivers can endure severe hypoxemia during breathhold without any apparent neurological deficit. Little is known on how brain circulation adapts to deliberate breathhold. We examined 14 experienced freedivers during breathholds of 5 to 7.5 minutes at a 3T MRI applying 3D-pCASL and IVIM-MRI sequences to reveal dynamic alterations of cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and in order to elucidate the relationship of rCBF and perfusion fraction (PF) of IVIM-MRI. rCBF increased to 3.2-fold the baseline levels and negatively correlated to blood oxygen levels, but not to PF, which initially dropped during breathhold and therefore appears to represent another underlying physiological mechanism.

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