Arterial input function in a dedicated slice for cerebral perfusion measurements in humans

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Neuroimaging
• Medical Physics

Background:

• Arterial input function (AIF) is crucial for accurate cerebral perfusion quantification in dynamic susceptibility contrast MRI (DSC-MRI).
• Previous AIF measurement methods required normalization or were not optimized for clinical human application.
• Accurate AIF is essential for reliable assessment of cerebrovascular diseases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To modify a previously published method for AIF measurement in DSC-MRI.
• To adapt the method for application in a clinical human setting.
• To enable direct, quantitative AIF measurement without additional normalization.

Main Methods:

• Extended a conventional DSC-MRI sequence with an additional neck slice measurement.
• Optimized measurement parameters (short echo time, background suppression) for blood signal detection.
• Utilized phase-based signal evaluation in carotid arteries to derive quantitative AIFs.

Main Results:

• Successfully obtained quantitative AIFs in all pilot measurements.
• Resulting absolute perfusion parameters (cerebral blood flow and volume) showed good agreement with literature values.
• Mean gray matter cerebral blood flow was 46 mL/100 g/min; white matter was 24 mL/100 g/min.
• Mean gray matter cerebral blood volume was 3.0%; white matter was 1.6%.

Conclusions:

• The developed method enables direct, quantitative AIF measurement from carotid arteries.
• This technique holds potential for routine clinical application in DSC-MRI.
• No additional normalization is required, simplifying the workflow.