Neurovascular characterization of early brain injury in subarachnoid hemorrhage with Multi-modality MRI (1H and 23Na)

Motivation: This work is to identify d 23Na (sodium) as a biomarker for early brain injuries (EBI) after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Goal(s): This research utilizes a novel head-implanted coil to measure 1H and 23Na whole-brain MRI for characterization of EBI. Approach: We achieved acquisition of 1H for anatomical templates and 23Na MRI images at an impressive spatial resolution of 300x300x500 µm. Results: We surprisingly observed that the 23Na signal precedes the appearance of conventional 1H diffusion-weighted signal after SAH-related brain injury. Also, a concentration gradient distribution of 23Na mapping within the EBI regions demonstrated a finer granularity not typically depicted by conventional 1H MRI. Impact: This work revealed the distinct 23Na dynamics for EBI detection and highlighted the critical usage of a multi-modal platform to specify the EBI after SAH.