Experimental focal cerebral ischaemia assessed with IVIM*-MRI in the acute phase at 0.5 tesla.

Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM*)-MRI has been performed on a clinical system at 0.5 tesla with a b gradient factor of 100 s/mm2, in a feline focal model of cerebral ischaemia. Images were obtained in 26 cats from less than 1 hour and up to 7-12 hours after stroke. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was decreased at the site of injury when compared to the contralateral normal side, by 30% in the first, 33% in 1-2 h and 27% in 2-4 h; it increased at 7-12 h, when vasogenic oedema occurred. IVIM*-MRI demonstrated early changes, due to cytotoxic oedema, during the acute phase of cerebral ischaemia to which conventional T2-weighted spin-echo imaging was not sensitive.