Pharmacological Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cloropidol on Motor Task

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: To investigate the pharmacologic modulation of motor task-dependent physiologic responses by antiplatelet agent, clopidogrel, during hand motor tasks in healthy subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ten healthy, right-handed subjects underwent three functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) sessions: one before drug administration, one after high dose drug administration and one after reaching drug steady state. For the motor task fMRI, finger flexion-extension movements were performed. Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast was collected for each subject using a 3.0 T VHi (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, USA) scanner. T2*-weighted echo planar imaging was used for fMRI acquisition. The fMRI data processing and statistical analyses were carried out using SPM2. RESULTS: Second-level analysis revealed significant increases in the extent of activation in the contralateral motor cortex including primary motor area (M1) after drug administration. The number of activated voxels in motor cortex was 173 without drug administration and the number increased to 1049 for high dose condition and 673 for steady-state condition respectively. However, there was no significant difference in the magnitude of BOLD signal change in terms of peak T value. CONCLUSION: The current results suggest that cerebral motor activity can be modulated by clopidogrel in healthy subjects and that fMRI is highly senstive to evidence such changes.