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Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Non-invasive Optical Measurement of Cerebral Metabolism and Hemodynamics in Infants
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Non-invasive Optical Measurement of Cerebral Metabolism and Hemodynamics in Infants

Published on: March 14, 2013

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Assessment of cerebral blood flow in neonates and infants: A phase-contrast MRI study

Peiying Liu1, Ying Qi2, Zixuan Lin1

  • 1Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Neuroimage
|March 15, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Phase-contrast MRI enables accurate cerebral blood flow (CBF) measurement in infants. This study provides age-specific recommendations for optimizing CBF quantification in neonates and young children.

Area of Science:

  • Medical Imaging
  • Pediatric Neurology
  • Cardiovascular Physiology

Background:

  • Abnormal cerebral blood flow (CBF) is linked to neonatal and infant diseases.
  • Current CBF measurement methods like arterial spin labeling (ASL) have limitations in young children due to low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and quantification challenges.
  • Rapid physiological changes in infants complicate the selection of MRI sequence parameters.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To apply and validate phase-contrast (PC) MRI for quantifying CBF in neonates and infants up to 18 months of age.
  • To establish reliable methods for measuring CBF in a pediatric population where it is clinically challenging.
  • To provide age-specific guidance for optimizing PC-MRI parameters for infant brain imaging.

Main Methods:

  • Compared time-of-flight (TOF) MR angiogram implementations for visualizing brain arteries.
  • Measured flow velocity and CBF in the internal carotid artery (ICA) and vertebral artery (VA) using PC-MRI with multiple encoding velocities (Venc) in 21 subjects.
  • Analyzed age-related changes in CBF relative to brain volume.

Main Results:

  • Peak arterial flow velocity in the ICA increased from 10.2 cm/s at birth to 56.0 cm/s at 18 months.
  • Peak VA flow velocity ranged from 4.5 to 36.3 cm/s during the same period.
  • CBF showed a significant age-related increase (p < 0.001) from 13.1 to 84.7 ml/100g/min within the first 18 months.

Conclusions:

  • PC-MRI is a promising technique for reliable global CBF assessment in infants.
  • The study provides crucial data on CBF development in early life and age-specific Venc recommendations for PC-MRI.
  • This work may establish a foundation for accurate whole-brain CBF measurement in pediatric populations.

Keywords:
Age effectCerebral blood flowInfantsNeonatesOptimizationPhase-contrast MRI

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