Total cerebral blood volume calculated from a model of [99mTc]pertechnetate distribution in the head

A method for calculation of the blood volume from the internal carotid and vertebral arteries to the internal jugular veins [total cerebral blood volume (TCBV)] was validated. This was achieved noninvasively in anesthetized rats from the time-activity curve recorded over the head after [99mTc]pertechnetate (Tc) intravenous bolus injection. Tc had the advantage over many other tracers in that it rapidly and evenly distributed in blood cells and plasma. Tc was found to behave in the head according to a two-parallel-compartment model containing a fast cerebral compartment and a slow extracerebral compartment. This model was mathematically described by a sum of two lagged normal density curves (LNDC) that fitted the head curve adequately. Responses of the LNDC parameters to flow and volume variations were first tested on a hydraulic setup. TCBV was calculated from the LNDC parameters of the cerebral fast compartment and the simultaneously determined cardiac output. In normocapnic rats, TCBV amounted to 49 +/- 7 (SD) microliters/g, distributed approximately two-thirds in the extra-parenchymal and one-third in the intraparenchymal cerebral vasculatures.