The mass transfer coefficient for oxygen transport from blood to tissue in cerebral cortex.

The functioning of cerebral cortex depends on adequate tissue oxygenation. MRI-based techniques allow estimation of blood oxygen levels, tissue perfusion, and oxygen consumption rate (CMRO), but do not directly measure partial pressure of oxygen (PO) in tissue. To address the estimation of tissue PO, the oxygen mass transfer coefficient (KTO) is here defined as the CMRO divided by the difference in spatially averaged PO between blood and tissue, and is estimated by analyzing Krogh-cylinder type models.