Association between pH-weighted endogenous amide proton chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI and tissue lactic acidosis during acute ischemic stroke.

The ischemic tissue becomes acidic after initiation of anaerobic respiration, which may result in impaired tissue metabolism and, ultimately, in severe tissue damage. Although changes in the major cerebral metabolites can be studied using magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy (MRS)-based techniques, their spatiotemporal resolution is often not sufficient for routine examination of fast-evolving and heterogeneous acute stroke lesions. Recently, pH-weighted MR imaging (MRI) has been proposed as a means to assess tissue acidosis by probing the pH-dependent chemical exchange of amide protons from endogenous proteins and peptides. In this study, we characterized acute ischemic tissue damage using localized proton MRS and multiparametric imaging techniques that included perfusion, diffusion, pH, and relaxation MRI. Our study showed that pH-weighted MRI can detect ischemic lesions and strongly correlates with tissue lactate content measured by (1)H MRS, indicating lactic acidosis. Our results also confirmed the correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient and lactate; however, no significant relationship was found for perfusion, T(1), and T(2). In summary, our study showed that optimized endogenous pH-weighted MRI, by sensitizing to local tissue pH, remains a promising tool for providing a surrogate imaging marker of lactic acidosis and altered tissue metabolism, and augments conventional techniques for stroke diagnosis.