Near Infrared Spectroscopy alike Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Complementary Data in Rat Brain after Cocaine Treatment

Abstract

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) are two major in vivo non invasive methodologies more and more applied in research. The first more than the second is largely used also in clinical domain. Both techniques are more or less related to the effectiveness of oxygen levels and/or functionality in blood and this can be exploited to monitor the influence of various factors and conditions upon the living tissue, in particular the brain. Here the complementarity of these two methodologies is challenged via comparison of the effect of cocaine treatment upon NIRS as well as MRI parameters monitored in vivo in rat brain. The aim of the study is to further support recent data obtained with our early introduced NIRS prototype to monitor hematic changes in CNS showing that NIRS is allowing evaluating rat blood brain barrier penetration of exogenous agents and demonstrating parallel alteration of brain metabolism following alcohol intake in rodents and man. Positive evidence will further confirm the utility of such prototype for real time translational rodent-man in vivo non invasive studies. The parallel MRI-NIRS data monitored confirm previous results obtained with these two non invasive methodologies and further support NIRS as a valuable tool for non invasive in vivo real time analysis of brain metabolism AND of drug treatments in the CNS.