Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of carbogen challenge on awake rabbit brain at 1.5T

Anesthesia may alter the cellular components contributing to the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signal intensities. Developing awake animal models to evaluate cerebral function has grown in importance.

To investigate a noninvasive strategy for dynamic MRI (dMRI) of awake rabbits during carbogen challenge.

A nonmetallic assistive device with a self-adhering wrap secure procedure was developed for the head fixation of awake rabbits. Multi-shot gradient echo echo-planar imaging sequence was applied for the dMRI on a 1.5 T clinical MRI scanner with a quadrature head coil. The carbogen challenge pattern was applied in a sequence of air - carbogen - air - carbogen - air. Twelve scans were performed for each block of carbogen challenge. T2-weighted fast-spin echo and T1-weighted gradient echo sequences were performed before and after dMRI to evaluate the head position shifts. The whole dMRI scan time was about 30 minutes.

The position shift of 8 rabbits in the x-and y-direction was less than 3%. The average MRI signal intensities (SI) from the 8 rabbits during carbogen challenge was fitted well using exponential growth and decay functions. The average MRI SI increase due to carbogen inhaling was 1.51%.

The proposed strategy for head dMRI on an awake rabbit during carbogen challenge is feasible.