Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 5, 2026
Author Spotlight: Noninvasive Cerebral Blood Flow Determination in Human Functional Brain Region for Diagnosis of Neurological Disorders
Published on: May 31, 2024
Accuracy of Parenchymal Cerebral Blood Flow Measurements Using Pseudocontinuous Arterial Spin-Labeling in Healthy
K Ambarki1, A Wåhlin2, L Zarrinkoob3
1From the Department of Radiation Sciences (K.A., A.W., A.E.) Centre for Biomedical Engineering and Physics (K.A., A.E.) khalid.ambarki@vll.se.
Background And Purpose:
The arterial spin-labeling method for CBF assessment is widely available, but its accuracy is not fully established. We investigated the accuracy of a whole-brain arterial spin-labeling technique for assessing the mean parenchymal CBF and the effect of aging in healthy volunteers. Phase-contrast MR imaging was used as the reference method.
Materials And Methods:
Ninety-two healthy volunteers were included: 49 young (age range, 20-30 years) and 43 elderly (age range, 65-80 years). Arterial spin-labeling parenchymal CBF values were averaged over the whole brain to quantify the mean pCBF(ASL) value. Total CBF was assessed with phase-contrast MR imaging as the sum of flows in the internal carotid and vertebral arteries, and subsequent division by brain volume returned the pCBF(PCMRI) value. Accuracy was considered as good as that of the reference method if the systematic difference was less than 5 mL/min/100 g of brain tissue and if the 95% confidence intervals were equal to or better than ±10 mL/min/100 g.
Results:
pCBF(ASL) correlated to pCBF(PCMRI) (r = 0.73; P < .001). Significant differences were observed between the pCBF(ASL) and pCBF(PCMRI) values in the young (P = .001) and the elderly (P < .001) volunteers. The systematic differences (mean ± 2 standard deviations) were -4 ± 14 mL/min/100 g in the young subjects and 6 ± 12 mL/min/100 g in the elderly subjects. Young subjects showed higher values than the elderly subjects for pCBF(PCMRI) (young, 57 ± 8 mL/min/100 g; elderly, 54 ± 7 mL/min/100 g; P = .05) and pCBF(ASL) (young, 61 ± 10 mL/min/100 g; elderly, 48 ± 10 mL/min/100 g; P < .001).
Conclusions:
The limits of agreement were too wide for the arterial spin-labeling method to be considered satisfactorily accurate, whereas the systematic overestimation in the young subjects and underestimation in the elderly subjects were close to acceptable. The age-related decrease in parenchymal CBF was augmented in arterial spin-labeling compared with phase-contrast MR imaging.
More Related Videos
12:29Magnetic Resonance Imaging Quantification of Pulmonary Perfusion using Calibrated Arterial Spin Labeling
Published on: May 30, 2011
10:21Continuous Blood Sampling in Small Animal Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography Enables the Measurement of the Arterial Input Function
Published on: August 8, 2019