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(Stroke. 2006;37:1741.)
© 2006 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Contributions

Local Relationships Between Restricted Water Diffusion and Oxygen Consumption in the Ischemic Human Brain

Joseph V. Guadagno, BSc, MRCP; P. Simon Jones, MSc; Tim D. Fryer, PhD; Olivier Barret, PhD; Franklin I. Aigbirhio, PhD; T. Adrian Carpenter, PhD; Christopher J. Price, BSc, MRCP; Jonathan H. Gillard, BSc, MD, FRCR; Elizabeth A. Warburton, DM, MRCP Jean-Claude Baron, MD, FRCP, FmedSci

From the Department of Clinical Neurosciences (J.V.G., P.S.J., F.I.A., C.J.P., E.A.W., J.-C.B.), University of Cambridge, UK; the Stroke Unit (E.A.W.), Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, UK; the Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre (T.D.F., O.B., F.I.A., T.A.C., J.H.G., J.-C.B.), University of Cambridge Clinical School, UK; the Department of Medicine (C.J.P.), University of Cambridge Clinical School, UK; and the Department of Radiology (J.H.G.), University of Cambridge Clinical School, UK.

Correspondence to Professor J.-C. Baron, Box 83, R3 Neurosciences, Cambridge University Department of Neurology, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 2QQ, UK. E-mail jcb54{at}cam.ac.uk

Background and Purpose— MR is widely used to depict still ischemic but viable tissue in acute stroke. However, the relationship between the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and energy failure from reduced oxygen supply are unknown in man.

Methods— Acute carotid-territory stroke patients were studied prospectively with both diffusion tensor–imaging and back-to-back steady-state ¹⁵O-PET. Substantial numbers of voxels with oxygen extraction fraction >0.70 (ie, significant ongoing hypoxia) were identified in 3 patients (imaged at 7, 16 and 21 hours after stroke onset). In this voxel population, the quantitative relationships between the ADC and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO₂), and ADC and cerebral blood flow (CBF), were assessed.

Results— The ADC remained essentially unchanged until CBF reached values 20 mls/100g per min, beyond which it declined linearly. In contrast, except when severely reduced, the ADC was a poorer predictor of CMRO₂. For both CBF and CMRO₂, however, the relationship with ADC became steeper with longer times since onset, ie, the same ADC reflected lower perfusion and CMRO₂ with elapsed time.

Conclusions— Despite the small sample and late times from stroke onset, the findings indicate that the degree of restricted water diffusion reliably reflects the severity of oxygen deprivation below the penumbral threshold but is less strongly related to metabolic disruption, which may explain why the ADC does not reliably predict tissue outcome. However, the same degree of diffusion restriction may correspond to greater severity of tissue disruption with elapsing time, which has relevance for stroke therapy. Time elapsed since stroke onset should be taken into account when interpreting ADC declines and in voxel-based infarct prediction models.

Key Words: cerebral blood flow • cerebral ischemia • diffusion magnetic resonance imaging • PET • stroke

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