Detectability of blood oxygenation level-dependent signal changes during short breath hold duration

Blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal increases induced by hypercapnia stress has been recently investigated in human brains, which may be clinically relevant because it reflects cerebral hemodynamic response to vasodilatation. The aims of this study were to investigate the detectability of BOLD signal changes due to short breath holding and the feasibility of this technique in routine clinical practice. The results showed that significant BOLD responses could be detected in the gray matter for a breath hold duration as short as 10 s. Breath hold duration correlated strongly with the full width at half maximum of the hemodynamic response (r2 = 0.975, p < 0.02), but not with the maximum signal change or the onset time. The fraction activation volume increased as the breath hold duration lengthened, reaching a plateau approximately at 20 s. Considering breath-holding capability of patients and detectability of BOLD signal changes, breath holding with a 20-s duration is suggested to be applied for clinical applications.