Quantitative permeability magnetic resonance imaging in acute ischemic stroke: how long do we need to scan?

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability estimation with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) has shown significant potential for predicting hemorrhagic transformation (HT) in patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). In this work, the effects of scan duration on quantitative BBB permeability estimates (KPS) were investigated. Data from eight patients (three with HT) aged 37-93 years old were retrospectively studied by directly calculating the standard deviation of KPS as a function of scan time. The uncertainty in KPS was reduced only slightly for a scan time of 3 min and 30 s (4% reduction in P value from .047 to .045). When more than 3 min and 30 s of data were used, quantitative permeability MRI was able to separate those patients who proceeded to HT from those who did not (P value <.05). Our findings indicate that reducing permeability acquisition times is feasible in keeping with the need to maintain time-efficient MR protocols in the setting of AIS.