Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Sep 4;57(3):317-324.
doi: 10.2478/raon-2023-0043. eCollection 2023 Sep 1.

The effects of normobaric and hyperbaric oxygenation on MRI signal intensities in T1 -weighted, T2 -weighted and FLAIR images in human brain

Vida Velej  1   2 , Ksenija Cankar  1 , Jernej Vidmar  1   3
Affiliations

The effects of normobaric and hyperbaric oxygenation on MRI signal intensities in T1 -weighted, T2 -weighted and FLAIR images in human brain

Vida Velej et al. Radiol Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: Dissolved oxygen has known paramagnetic effects in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The aim of this study was to compare the effects of normobaric oxygenation (NBO) and hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) on human brain MRI signal intensities.

Patients and methods: Baseline brain MRI was performed in 17 healthy subjects (mean age 27.8 ± 3.2). MRI was repeated after exposure to the NBO and HBO at different time points (0 min, 25 min, 50 min). Signal intensities in T 1-weighted, T 2-weighted images and fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) signal intensities of several intracranial structures were compared between NBO and HBO.

Results: Increased T 1-weighted signal intensities were observed in white and deep grey brain matter, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), venous blood and vitreous body after exposure to NBO as well as to HBO compared to baseline (Dunnett's test, p < 0.05) without significant differences between both protocols. There was also no significant difference in T 2-weighted signal intensities between NBO and HBO. FLAIR signal intensities were increased only in the vitreous body after NBO and HBO and FLAIR signal of caudate nucleus was decreased after NBO (Dunnett's test, p < 0.05). The statistically significant differences in FLAIR signal intensities were found between NBO and HBO (paired t-test, p < 0.05) in most observed brain structures (paired t-test, p < 0.05).

Conclusions: Our results show that NBO and HBO alters signal intensities T 1-weighted and FLAIR images of human brain. The differences between NBO and HBO are most pronounced in FLAIR imaging.

Keywords: human brain; hyperbaric oxygen; magnetic resonance; normobaric oxygen.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) protocol.
FIGURE 2.
FIGURE 2.
Representative MRI images in healthy subject at baseline, immediately after the end, after 25 min and after 50 min of NBO or HBO.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. McGrath DM, Naish JH, O’Connor JP, Hutchinson CE, Waterton JC, Taylor CJ. et al. Oxygen-induced changes in longitudinal relaxation times in skeletal muscle. Magn Reson Imaging. 2008;26:221–7. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2007.06.011. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bloch F, Hansen WW, Packard M. The nuclear induction experiment. Phys Rev. 1946;70:474–85. doi: 10.1103/PhysRev.70.474. - DOI
    1. Chiarotti G, Cristiani G, Giulotto L. Proton relaxation in pure liquids and in liquids containing paramagnetic gases in solution. Nuovo Cimento. 1955;1:863–73. doi: 10.1007/Bf02731333. - DOI
    1. Young IR, Clarke GJ, Bailes DR, Pennock JM, Doyle FH, Bydder GM. Enhancement of relaxation rate with paramagnetic contrast agents in NMR imaging. J Comput Tomogr. 1981;5:543–7. doi: 10.1016/0149-936x(81)90089-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tain RW, Scotti AM, Li W, Zhou XJ, Cai K. Influence of free radicals on the intrinsic MRI relaxation properties. Adv Exp Med Biol. 2017;977:73–9. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-55231-6_11. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources