Summary: To identify the temperature dependent change of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of water in brain tissue, the ADC values of normal rat brain were measured over a range of body temperatures with moni toring of head temperature using a small water reference implanted under the temporalis muscle. An initial exper iment using thermocouples implanted into the cortex, caudate-putamen, temporalis muscle, and rectum demon strated that temperature in all regions were highly corre lated over a temperature range from 33 to 39°C. In an other group of normal rats, brain ADC values varied al most uniformly with body temperature over the temperature range 33-39°C, implying that brain ADC val ues accurately reflect changes in brain temperature. The Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) is derived by measuring the translational movement (diffusion) of water molecules over a short interval (Le Bihan et al., 1986;. DWI can rapidly detect and localize focal brain injury as early as minutes after the onset of ischemia (Moseley et al., 1990a,b;Mintorovitch et al., 1991; Minematsu et al., 1992a,b). This method is a powerful tool for studying clinical and experi mental brain ischemia.Brain temperature is an important physiologic pa rameter that should be monitored during experi- Abbreviations used: ADC, apparent diffusion coefficient; CCA, common carotid artery; DWI, diffusion-weighted imaging; MCA, middle cerebral artery; MRI, magnetic resonance imag ing; NMDA, N-methyl-o-aspartate; ROI, region of interest.
383effects of focal ischemia and administration of the non competitive N-methyl-o-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist, CNS-1102, on ADC were also examined, using the suture middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion model while maintaining the body temperature at 37°C. ADC values and therefore brain temperature in the nonischemic and ischemic hemispheres were not affected by the drug. These experiments suggest that brain ADC measurement could be useful in animal studies and, potentially, in hu mans to assess the effects of pharmacologic intervention on brain temperature. Key Words: Middle cerebral artery occlusion-Brain temperature-Magnetic resonance im aging-Apparent diffusion coefficient-Diffusion map ping.