Measuring the effects of indomethacin on changes in cerebral oxidative metabolism and cerebral blood flow during sensorimotor activation

The work presented here uses combined blood oxygenation level‐dependent (BOLD) and arterial spin tagging (AST) approaches to study the effect of indomethacin on cerebral blood flow (CBF) and oxygen consumption (CMRO2) increases during motor activation. While indomethacin reduced the CBF increase during activation, it did not significantly affect the CMRO2 increase during activation. The ratio of the activation‐induced CBF increase in the presence and absence of indomethacin was 0.54 ± 0.08 (±SEM, n = 8, P < 0.001), while the ratio of the CMRO2 increase in the presence and absence of the drug was 1.02 ± 0.08 (±SEM, N = 8, ns). Potential difficulties in estimating CMRO2 changes from combined BOLD/AST data are discussed. Magn Reson Med 50:99–106, 2003. Published 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.