Measurement of T1 of human arterial and venous blood at 7T

Techniques for measuring cerebral perfusion require accurate longitudinal relaxation (T1) of blood, an MRI parameter that is field dependent. T1 of arterial and venous human blood was measured at 7T using three different sources — pathology laboratory, blood bank and in vivo. The T1 of venous blood was measured from sealed samples from a pathology lab and in vivo. Samples from a blood bank were oxygenated and mixed to obtain different physiological concentrations of hematocrit and oxygenation. T1 relaxation times were estimated using a three-point fit to a simple inversion recovery equation. At 37°C, the T1 of blood at arterial pO2 was 2.29±0.1s and 2.07±0.12 at venous pO2. The in vivo T1 of venous blood, in three subjects, was slightly longer at 2.45±0.11s. T1 of arterial and venous blood at 7T was measured and found to be significantly different. The T1 values were longer in vivo than in vitro. While the exact cause for the discrepancy is unknown, the additives in the blood samples, degradation during experiment, oxygenation differences, and the non-stagnant nature of blood in vivo could be potential contributors to the lower values of T1 in the venous samples.