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Accelerated MCDW-pCASL Using Subspace Low-Rank Reconstruction for Quantification of BBB Water Exchange and
Zixuan Liu1,2, Chenyang Zhao1, Ziyang Huang1,2
1Laboratory of FMRI Technology (LOFT), Mark & Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California.
Medrxiv : the Preprint Server for Health Sciences
|July 30, 2026
Summary
A new accelerated motion-compensated diffusion-weighted pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (MCDW-pCASL) method reliably quantifies blood-brain barrier (BBB) water exchange and permeability. This technique shows promise for assessing brain perfusion and BBB function in clinical settings.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Biophysics
- Medical Physics
Background:
- Accurate quantification of blood-brain barrier (BBB) water exchange and permeability is crucial for understanding neurological disorders.
- Conventional pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL) methods can be time-consuming and susceptible to motion artifacts.
- Developing accelerated imaging techniques is essential for efficient clinical neuroimaging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate an accelerated motion-compensated diffusion-weighted pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (MCDW-pCASL) technique.
- To enable efficient and simultaneous quantification of cerebral blood flow (CBF), BBB water exchange rate (kw), and permeability (PSw).
- To assess the test-retest reliability and cross-method agreement of the accelerated MCDW-pCASL method.
Main Methods:
- An accelerated multidelay MCDW-pCASL sequence was implemented to capture intravascular and extravascular signals.
- A spatial subspace low-rank reconstruction framework was optimized for joint estimation of CBF, BBB kw, and PSw.
- The accelerated MCDW-pCASL method was compared against a conventional diffusion-prepared (DP) pCASL sequence in healthy young adults and evaluated for age-related differences in older adults.
Main Results:
- The accelerated MCDW-pCASL method showed excellent agreement with DP-pCASL for CBF (ICC = 0.89) and fair agreement for kw (ICC = 0.56).
- Good test-retest repeatability was observed for CBF, BBB kw, and PSw using the accelerated MCDW-pCASL technique (ICC ≈ 0.6).
- Younger adults exhibited significantly higher CBF and kw compared to older adults across both sequences.
Conclusions:
- The developed spatial low-rank subspace reconstruction enables accelerated MCDW-pCASL acquisition for reliable simultaneous quantification of CBF, BBB kw, and PSw.
- This accelerated method offers a promising tool for assessing brain perfusion and BBB function.
- Further clinical applications of this advanced neuroimaging technique are warranted.
Keywords:
Blood–brain barrier (BBB)Low-rank reconstructionPseudo-Continuous Arterial Spin Labeling (pCASL)Water exchangediffusion weighted arterial spin labeling (DW-ASL)
