Serial postmortem relaxometry in the normal rat brain and following stroke

Purpose To investigate MRI for noninvasive autopsy by means of measurements of serial changes in relaxation parameters of the rat brain during the postmortem interval. Materials and Methods Postmortem relaxometry measurements were performed before and hourly after death for 24 h on five control rats...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of magnetic resonance imaging 2008-03, Vol.27 (3), p.469-475
Main Authors: Fagan, Andrew J., Mullin, Jim M., Gallagher, Lindsay, Hadley, Donald M., Macrae, I. Mhairi, Condon, Barrie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
autopsy
Brain - pathology
Brain Ischemia - pathology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
MRI
MRI, post mortem
post mortem
Postmortem Changes
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
relaxation times
Sensitivity and Specificity
stroke
Stroke - pathology
Time Factors
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Summary:Purpose To investigate MRI for noninvasive autopsy by means of measurements of serial changes in relaxation parameters of the rat brain during the postmortem interval. Materials and Methods Postmortem relaxometry measurements were performed before and hourly after death for 24 h on five control rats and five rats that underwent middle cerebral artery occlusion. Analyses were performed on representative regions of gray, white, and mixed gray/white matter structures. Results Significant decreases in both T1 and T2 values were measured in all areas in the control group within 24 h of death. In the stroke animals, T2 differences between normal and ischemic striatal tissue decreased by 11 ± 4% (P < 0.01), with a complete convergence of T2 values observed between ischemic striatal tissue and nonischemic cortical tissue. Conclusion Lesion conspicuity and the ability to differentiate between different tissue compartments are significantly affected by postmortem interval, and alterations to pulse timing parameters will be necessary if the sensitivity of MRI to detect central nervous system diseases in postmortem tissue is to be maintained. Indeed in the case of stroke at least, convergence of T2 values with normal tissue post mortem indicates that T1‐weighted images may be more sensitive to the presence of such lesions. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
ISSN:1053-1807
1522-2586
DOI:10.1002/jmri.21246