Im Jae-Geun, Kim Jun-Hee, Park Sung-Hong
Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea.
Department of Bio and Brain Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, South Korea; Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea.
Neuroimage. 2025 May 1;311:121192. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2025.121192. Epub 2025 Apr 6.
In the brain clearance system, the movement of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) plays a key role in processing waste products. Previous studies have shown that CSF flow interacts significantly with cerebral blood flow (CBF) during brain waste clearance, but there are no simultaneous measurements and comparisons of these two metrics in humans. This study introduces a novel method for simultaneously measuring CSF pulsatile movement and CBF using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) MRI. We conducted a comparative analysis of the correlation between CBF and CSF pulsatile movement in human subjects during breath-holding and motor task conditions. Our findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed technique in measuring CSF pulsatile movement, as validated by comparing results with phase-contrast MRI at corresponding locations. Importantly, we observed a robust positive correlation between CBF and CSF pulsation concurrently measured through pCASL during breath-holding. Furthermore, through inter-subject comparisons of regional CBF and CSF pulsation, we established that higher blood perfusion in putamen, caudate, and pallidum regions, which are included in basal ganglia structure, corresponds to greater CSF pulsatile movement. Our motor tasks significantly increased CBF in the motor cortex, and CSF pulsation measured in the dorsal part around cisterna magna showed a decreasing tendency in the motor condition compared to the resting state, aligning with the Monroe-Kelly doctrine. Accordingly, these results demonstrate the feasibility of simultaneous measurement of CBF and CSF pulsation using the proposed pCASL technique in humans, which warrants further investigation.
在脑清除系统中，脑脊液（CSF）的流动在处理代谢废物过程中起着关键作用。先前的研究表明，在脑废物清除过程中，脑脊液流动与脑血流量（CBF）存在显著相互作用，但尚无针对这两个指标在人体中的同步测量和比较。本研究引入了一种使用伪连续动脉自旋标记（pCASL）MRI同时测量脑脊液搏动性运动和脑血流量的新方法。我们对人类受试者在屏气和运动任务条件下脑血流量与脑脊液搏动性运动之间的相关性进行了对比分析。我们的研究结果证明了我们所提出技术在测量脑脊液搏动性运动方面的有效性，通过将相应位置的结果与相位对比MRI进行比较得到了验证。重要的是，我们观察到在屏气期间通过pCASL同时测量的脑血流量与脑脊液搏动之间存在强烈的正相关。此外，通过对区域脑血流量和脑脊液搏动的受试者间比较，我们确定基底神经节结构中包含的壳核、尾状核和苍白球区域较高的血液灌注对应着更大的脑脊液搏动性运动。我们的运动任务显著增加了运动皮层的脑血流量，与静息状态相比，在大池背侧测量的脑脊液搏动在运动状态下呈下降趋势，这与门罗 - 凯利学说相符。因此，这些结果证明了使用所提出的pCASL技术在人体中同时测量脑血流量和脑脊液搏动的可行性，这值得进一步研究。
