Myocardial intensity changes associated with flow stimulation in blood oxygenation sensitive magnetic resonance imaging

Functional magnetic resonance imaging exploits deoxygenated blood as an endogeneous source for contrast in assessing local changes in tissue perfusion. Intrinsic changes in myocardial signal intensity were measured during dipyridamole induced coronary vasodilatation with T₂*-weighted echo planar MRI in healthy volunteers. Concurrently, changes in flow velocity in the left anterior descending coronary artery were measured using a time-of-flight method. Dipyridamole infusion produced 14 ± 6% increase in myocardial signal intensity (n = 7). Temporal profile of the myocardial signal intensity changes correlated well with the augmentation of coronary flow velocity. The data are consistent with the concept that changes in myocardial deoxyhemoglobin content due to altered flow result in changes in magnetic susceptibility that can be detected on T₂*-weighted MR images.