19F Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cerebral Blood Flow with 0.4-cc Resolution

19F magnetic resonance imaging techniques were used to determine “wash-in” and “wash-out” curves of the inert, diffusible gas CHF3 from 0.4-cc voxels in the cat brain, and mass spectrometer gas detection was used to determine the CHF3 concentration in expired air. These two sets of data were used to calculate cerebral blood flow values in the 0.4-cc voxels, and the blood flow images were registered with high-resolution 1H magnetic resonance images. Data were collected both during the wash-in and wash-out phases of the experiment, but the two sets of data were analyzed separately to obtain independent estimates of the blood flow during the two phases, i.e., Qin and Qout. Repeated determinations of cerebral blood flow images were performed in individual animals, and the entire protocol was repeated on five different animals. The average values of Qin and Qout for a typical 0.4-cc voxel in the parietal cortex were 83 ml 100 g−1 min−1 and 72 ml 100 g−1 min−1, respectively. Monte Carlo calculations utilizing the noise in the 19F NMR signal from this voxel predict an average standard deviation for Qin and Qout of ± 10%. The average standard deviation for repeated measurements (in the same animal) of Qin and Qout in this voxel was ± 14%. We conclude that 19F magnetic resonance imaging approaches have the potential to image cerebral blood flow in humans.