:: BRI role at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Workshop on “Cerebral Perfusion and Brain Function” ::

The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) is the main international Society in the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and its applications to medical research. The society sponsors specialised workshops on relevant topics. While the main Annual Meeting has over 5000 registrants, the workshops are aimed at smaller specialist groups of attendees in order to maximise scientific interaction and informal discussions. The Workshop on “Cerebral Perfusion and Brain Function: Novel Techniques and Applications” was held in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil (28 July - 1 August 2007) (link: ). Dr. Fernando Calamante, Senior Research Fellow at the BRI, was a member of the Organising Committee, which also included Dr. Fahmeed Hyder (Yale University, USA) and Dr. Afonso C. Silva (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, USA).

Such international workshops are usually held in North America and Europe. This Workshop was located in Brazil especially to encourage the development of this important research field in Latin America. The local organisers were Dr. Edson Amaro Jr. and Dr. Draulio Barros de Araujo (Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil). The workshop included 18 invited talks by world leading experts in the field, from North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Apart from co-organisation of the workshop, Dr. Calamante’s contribution included an invited talk on “Current status of Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast MRI quantification with an intact blood-brain barrier”, and chairing the session “Functional Brain Hemodynamics: Animal Models”.

Cerebral perfusion (i.e. rate of blood delivery to brain tissue) is a fundamental and essential physiological entity of critical importance for the survival of brain tissue because it supports brain’s energy metabolism for sub serving normal function. Through the well-regulated cerebral circulation, blood delivers essential nutrients for energy metabolism and hormones to brain tissue and carries away metabolic waste products while regulating temperature. Unlike any other organ of the body, the brain is particularly dependent on a normal and continuous delivery of blood and critically vulnerable to compromises in blood supply because of the extremely high energy demand of brain. Therefore, measurements of perfusion and brain function, in general, are very important ways of assessing brain tissue viability, both in normal and pathologic states. This workshop encompassed many novel techniques and applications used for measuring cerebral perfusion and brain function, both under normal physiology and disease. To this end, the aim of the workshop was to describe:
(i) clinical diagnosis and treatment of cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative diseases;
(ii) new and quantitative measurements of brain metabolism and function;
(iii) the most up-to-date methods that measure brain perfusion and function.

[Dr. Calamante’s attendance at the Workshop was funded in part by a grant from the Council on Latin America Relations (COALAR)]

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