The Early Effect of Alcohol and Caffeine on a BOLD Signal Measured in Human Hand at Low-Field MRI

Abstract

Even though low-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) remains widely used, it has some limitations preventing common use of particular MR methods, such as functional MPI (fMRI). This does not apply to the effects of alcohol or caffeine, as these substances influence the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal. This paper focused on testing early effects of caffeine and alcohol on induced ''BOLD'' imaging on a modern low-field system. A study based on alcohol and caffeine consumption was performed on ten volunteers. The signal intensity variations caused by blood flow changes were observed in 5-min intervals in the skin surrounding dermal veins of the hand. The signal intensity variations were significant in the region of interest, with a subtracted venal signal 15 min after consumption of alcohol, and in caffeine case, the results were significant even sooner. A low-field system is feasible for imaging the acute hemodynamic response, thus caffeine and alcohol can be used to enhance low-field fMRI experiments without the pre-measurement delay.

Design and Construction of Novel Instrumentation for Low-Field MR Tomography

“…Although MR systems with high magnetic field strengths are the mainstream scanners these days, lowfield systems are still commonly used, as they provide space and accessibility important for claustrophobic and obese patients, for example, as well as for children, who are often fearful in closed MR scanners. Low fields are also useful for modern applications, such as blood oxygenation level dependent contrast MRI (BOLD MRI) [4], [5] and are even more desirable than high fields in some special applications, e.g., hyperpolarized gas lung MRI [6], [7]. In these types of scanners, the SNR is usually increased through signal averaging, which also makes the examination timedemanding.…”